A DOG GOES TO SCHOOL

Blue Mountain Seventh-day Adventist Elementary School has a history of offering a good Adventist Church School environment for children Kindergarten up through grade 8. Ellen Siregar invited me to come and conduct the worship service on Friday, May 6.

I took our dog, a West Highland White Terrier named Nessie along with me to help the students visualize part of the worship service.

The worship service devotional opened with the story of Greyfriar’s Bobby, a small Skye Terrier, which looks somewhat like our Nessie but is a little smaller and a dusky color. John Grey was a policeman in Edinburgh Scotland and was a night patrolman. He got his little Skye Terrier in 1856 and Bobby was a faithful companion. IN 1858 John Grey died and was buried in the Greyfriar’s Church cemetery. Jeanne and I have been to that cemetery in Scotland.

Just outside, a monument has been erected in memory of Bobby.
For the next 14 years the little Skye Terrier named Bobby would go every day and stay at the graveside of his master, John Grey, never leaving except for food and water. This was observed by inhabitants of Edinburgh of high position as well as common people. When Bobby died, he was buried just outside the edge of the same cemetery (since church cemeteries were considered consecrated ground, dogs could not be buried inside them ) as his master John Grey, and today there is a substantial granite marker for this faithful dog’s burial spot.
In Revelation 2:10, God’s word says, “Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee the crown of life.” For 14 years this little Skye Terrier was faithful to the memory of his master and stayed at the last spot he knew his master to be.

What a lesson to you and me, to be faithful to stay at the side of Jesus all through our life, no matter what happens, even if our death should come. Little Bobby had a large gravestone erected over his grave because of his faithfulness. But Jesus promises something even better than receiving world-wide acclaim for our faithfulness. Jesus promises a crown of life.

I am thankful for the dedicated teachers we have here in the Pennsylvania Conference, who day in and day out are directing our children to the soon-coming Savior who has promised a crown of life. Teachers like Frank Stahl, Rachel Wardecke and Ellen Siregar are making a difference that will be seen in eternity.
If you have school aged children, make every effort to have them in an Adventist Church school this coming Fall.