MY family will always be grateful to the many kind friends who looked after our dog when we went on holiday.

One such lady, living in the Norfolk countryside and deciding our dog needed more than his usual three-mile walk, took him six miles before giving him his freedom. It was just what the poor lad needed. But then a gun went off and so did he, running out of her sight.

You can imagine the lady’s feeling when, after two days of special care, she went and lost him. Fortunately, she had underestimated our dog. Come mealtime, there he was – standing by his dish, waiting.

Someone once imagined the scene when God created humankind. One angel said: “You’re giving these creatures freedom, but they will never be wise enough to handle it. They will think themselves gods. They will boast in their self-sufficiency. How can you know they will remember to return to you?”

God replied to the angel: “I have left them unfinished within. I have left in them deep needs that only I can truly satisfy so that, out of their homesickness of soul, they will remember to return to me.”

We all have deep needs, needs that unite us with ourselves, with those around us and with the God who created us; and these deep needs give us a connection with one another.

“Underneath the surface, folk are much the same, they all need hope and faith, these people passing by; they all need love, they all need God.”

In other words, we all have the same foundation and the same need, which is God. Being separated from him, how can we then be dependent on and accepted by the God who truly loves us?

We need to recognise that we are all loved by God, and that he showed us his willingness to love and accept us.

We can put our failures and our past behind us, for God loves us for who we are despite what we have done – and especially because of what our future means to him. In God’s sight, we are accepted.

Alistair Dawson

Retired Salvation Army officer