The God-human-animal bond (the GHAB™) is the Holy link that connects us, helping us rediscover the spiritual importance of our connections with animals. By integrating Christian theology, mysticism, ecological reflection, and storytelling, this blog reveals that these human–animal relationships, often called the human–animal bond (HAB), are not just a relationship but a sacred space where God’s presence, love, and mission come together, the God–human–animal bond (the GHAB™). For decades, the HAB has been recognized in universities, medical research, and psychosocial studies. Now, for the first time, there is a place for God in the HAB. When we overlook God’s presence in this bond, we risk missing an important dimension of our theology and practice; when we recognize it, we discover that God’s reconciling work in Christ extends not only to human souls but also to the whole community of creation.
In this blog, the GHAB™ is portrayed as the non-hierarchical living three‑way relationship among God, humans, and animals, connected through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in creation, covenant, and redemption. This bond is seldom abstract and often takes shape in real places like homes, hillsides, barns, and back roads, where our lives and the lives of animals are part of God’s ongoing work. The Holy Spirit’s connective work in the GHAB™ continually holds creation together and, at times, makes God’s love especially tangible through our relationships with animals, with each moment like a single link in creation’s living, breathing, community chain.
This timeline traces my spiritual journey with the animals and the unfolding of the GHAB™ in my life and ministry. Hindsight is a gift.
August 12, 2013
Paws, Prayer, and the First Steps of Healing
This season marked the beginning of my healing journey as I stepped away from the VA chaplaincy and into slow, contemplative walks with my dogs. Those walks became a kind of living prayer, where paws on the earth, breath, and silence helped me listen for God’s presence amid trauma and exhaustion.
February 27, 2014
When A Dog’s Utopia Became a Sign of New Life
As I walked the rural roads with my dogs, Jenny thought others may want their dogs walked, too. She signed up to host dogs on DogVacay, an online dog boarding platform. It wasn’t long before we had our first customer, and I had a new furry friend walking with me. Then I had another customer… and another. I learned that the dogs were drawing me back into a place of life-giving thoughts.
December 2019
From Trauma to the Walk on the Emmaus Road
Unexpectedly, it was like my eyes were opened, and I heard the soft voice of the Spirit within me say, “I’ve been with you while you were walking. I never left you while you were in the darkness.” Even after a season when I couldn’t focus enough to read a magazine or even remember or read Scripture, I suddenly pictured the two disciples walking to Emmaus in my mind’s eye. Jesus joined them, though they didn’t recognize Him until He revealed Himself. He walked and talked with them, and later opened their eyes. This was my story, too.
February 2020
Re-entered Seminary as a Doctoral Candidate: From Trauma to Thesis
As my healing deepened, the long walks with the dogs and how the Lord met me on the road started to blend my two loves, the Lord and the dogs.
One day, I noticed a desire to learn more about what was happening, spiritually speaking, to me on these dog walks. I felt the strongest pull back to the classroom.
My spiritual experiences on the road with the animals began to take shape in my theological imagination. What started as survival slowly turned into reflection and, eventually, into questions and insights about this connection that I could no longer keep to myself.
This was the season when my lived experience with the dogs began to grow into a doctoral thesis, drawing a clear thread between trauma, healing, and the Lord’s presence with the animals.
March 7, 2026
From Life to Pages
This marks the move from my lived experience with the dogs and research into The Holy Link of the God, Human, Animal Bond: Re-imagining Our Stories to Include Animals.
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The God–Human–Animal Bond: A Timeline of My Journey
