What I Learned from Greyfriars Bobby and Hachiko

I was in Edinburgh, Scotland, several years ago when I noticed a statue of a little dog. Beside the statue and the small fountain, my sister Rose and I read about the Skye Terrier, Bobby. Bobby had belonged to John Gray who worked for the Edinburgh police as a night watchman. When John Gray died he was buried in Greyfriars Kirk. Bobby was so loyal to his master that he spent the rest of his life sitting on his master's grave. Sir William Chambers was so impressed by the faithful love that Bobby had for his master that he provided Bobby with a licence and the people of the town made sure the little terrier was fed.

There is another statue in Tokyo, Japan, that is a monument to this kind of faithful love. At the Shibuya Train station in Japan you will find a statue of Hachiko waiting for his master Professor Hidesaburo Ueno to step off the train. Hachiko was only a six-month-old puppy when he began waiting for the Professor's train at five minutes until three every afternoon. The professor would find his faithful companion waiting. But after only one year of this routine the professor died of a heart attack. Hachiko, however, continued to wait at the station at five until three every afternoon for the next ten years. Hachiko was watching expectantly, rejoicing in hope, believing that one day he would be reunited with his beloved master.

I can't think about these two stories, or the monuments erected in their honor, without thinking about what I have read in the fifth chapter of Romans. "We rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Biblical hope is a confident expectation of good based on the person and the promises of God. The hope that kept Bobby sitting on his master's grave and Hachiko waiting every afternoon at five until three for the train to return was based on a loyal dog's trust in his human master.

Romans 5 goes on to say, "Not only that, but we rejoice in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance." What does endurance look like? How would you describe patience? I am sure both Bobby and Hachiko encountered both rain and snow as they waited for their masters. But their focus wasn't on the rain or snow; they were focused on their master's return and waited patiently. How do I know that? Bobby sat waiting for fourteen years and Hachiko waited for ten. You don't wait like that if you're watching the weather. The promise we have--that our sufferings are not wasted, and that we don't suffer in vain--has been given to us by God. This is the same God who said, "I have loved with an ever lasting love." (Jeremiah 31:3). And yet I find it so easy to watch the weather and not look into the eyes of the God who loves me.

Thinking about these two monuments, I wonder, what were they memorializing? The relationship between a dog and his master? Did they want to use these dogs as a symbol of patience and endurance? Or could it possibly be that these storied are a picture of what 1 Corinthians 13:4 means when it says, "Love is patient"?