I saw the movie "Because of Winn-Dixie" today. It's one of those rare films you can watch with your kids, but still enjoy. Some of why I was intrigued had to do with the first scene: Opal, the little girl in the story, is riding her bike, trying to get to a church service at a Quick-Mart on time, largely because her father is the pastor.

My own father was a pastor, though never at a Quick-Mart. He was, however, Baptist, like the Pastor father in the film, and I was often riding down the streets of our neighborhood on a second-hand bike with a mangy dog by my side (like Winn-Dixie).

The dog, Joshua, we adopted from a local Supermarket when he followed my mother to her volkswagon bug as she was putting groceries away. He was shabby and hyper, but my parents were remarkably tolerant.

Several times he went lost, and my father shared the news with the congregation. As I remember, he used my six-year old’s prayer as an example of child-like faith, and the reality of God’s goodness each time the dog was, again, found.

I see my childhood through the haze of Baptist faith and fervor, remembering how it felt to view a wayward dog as beloved, and his return to our family as an example of the surety of God’s goodness and grace. That certainty being a gift, that at six, I was not yet aware of.

~Jill