SUNCOOK, S.C.. —
Betty Lynn Monroe believes her dog, Rambler, has had a conversion comparable to what humans experience.
Monroe says that for months Rambler has been sitting in a corner and listening to her home Bible study group discuss the Bible.
Then, last week during the prayer time, Rambler ran into their midst, lay down on the floor and looked up at them with “a look of pure regret and sadness,”
Monroe says. “It was as sincere as anything I’ve seen among humans at the altar at church.”
The group laid hands on Rambler and prayed that God would make him a “born-again creature.”Rambler then leapt up and pranced around the living room.“It was the most joyous display of freedom in Christ we’d ever seen,” says one woman. “I teared up.”
Since his “conversion,” Rambler is more helpful. He doesn’t chase squirrels into the bushes, and he tolerates the neighbor’s cat.
He even has “corrected” his owners. Monroe says she and her husband fought one night and retreated to separate rooms. Rambler came to one room, then another with a “disapproving look.” He wouldn’t stop until they reconciled before bed. “It was like he was reminding us to not let the sun go down on our anger,” she says.
Rambler seems to wait all week for the home Bible study. He runs around excitedly when people gather. He yips and howls when the group worships. “He loves the presence of the Holy Spirit as much as we do,” says one Bible study member.
He also lays on Monroe’s lap every night and whines until she reads to him from the Psalms. His favorite passage comes from Psalm 145:21, “Let every creature praise his holy name for ever and ever.”
Rambler has even stopped hanging around rowdy dogs in the neighborhood. They come around to try to get him to tear up people’s gardens, but Rambler won’t go. He watches them glumly out the window. “It’s almost as if he wishes he could share the good news with them,” she says. “Maybe in his own way, he will.” •
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