“Jericho looked at him on that cross and wagged his little tail
Now the kind of love a dog has is a love that never fails
It’s kind of like the love of God no matter what you do
A dog looks through the outer shell and loves the inner you.”

Dogs weren’t always man’s best friend. It wasn’t that the dogs didn’t want to be, in fact, there was something about humans that we instinctively liked and dogs have always felt drawn toward man, but many humans were very cruel. They kicked us, threw rocks at us and laughed when we cried out in pain. A litter of puppies would be born, only to be taken from their proud mother and thrown in the river to drown.
Dogs are smart. And like an elephant, we have long memories. Our ancestors learned that man was something to be feared, not loved.

But they were wrong. Every human isn’t like that.
Maya and I both loved Jesus, and he was a man, so maybe humans weren’t so bad after all.

We’ve made many new friends in our travels and told them all about meeting Jesus and what he taught us about forgiveness (especially toward humans.) Most of them listened, and somehow, we look at humans differently now. You can see a little bit of Jesus in all of them!
If you look around you, you’ll see Him in them too. He can be a little hard to see in some people, but if you look hard enough, He’s in there. And if you love Him, you’ll look inside and love them too. Unconditionally.

That Silent Voice

I remember when Jesus got my mother’s bell out of the ground and tied it around my neck after I dug it up at the mound. (You’ll learn more about that when you see the movie.) He said, “Did you know that there is a silent voice between animals and humans? Not everyone hears it, but some do.” Jesus heard it. And I did too. That’s how he knew my name was Jericho, (which is also the name of the city by the Dead Sea I’d lived by for most of my life before I met Him that day in Jerusalem.) That silent voice is how I knew this man Jesus wasn’t like the other cruel humans I’d encountered.
I remember a man we met in Damascus. His name was Paul, he’d met Jesus too, and in the same silent voice we had long conversations about that last week I spent with Him, as we walked along the road together. Paul gave us water and shared his bread with us. He was a nice man.

We’re on our way back to Jerusalem now, to check on our friends and see Maya’s humans. Maybe we can rest in her garden for a while, and I’ll have time to share more stories.
We’ve been a lot of places on our trip and I have a lot more adventures to tell you about. So does Maya.

Love,
Jericho