Rosie: Bred For A Purpose
- Richard Selke
- Jan 20
- 6 min read
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Rosie is one of the cutest, most beautiful dogs I have ever seen. Rosie is a dachshund – elegant, intelligent, affectionate and loyal. She’s also a bold, stubborn, independent and fearless badger hound.
Rosie’s ancestors were bred to hunt badgers. They would crawl into a hole, confront a badger and survive the encounter.
The dachshund originated in Germany, and their primary target was the European badger. Badgers were pests that damaged farmland and threatened livestock and poultry.
Badgers are formidable, highly aggressive and dangerous animals. They’re built low, wide and are extremely muscular. They have long, curved, powerful claws that are excellent for digging and fighting. Their teeth and jaws are strong enough to cause serious injury, even death. Their skin is thick and loose, making it hard to grip. Badgers are fighters and they are often heavier than a dachshund. Badgers live in complex underground tunnels and burrows. Humans could not easily access those burrows – so they needed a dog.
Understanding the badger helps explain why the dachshund looks and behaves the way it does.
Because the badger was so dangerous, dachshunds were intentionally bred with very specific traits: long, low bodies to enter tunnels; short, powerful legs for digging and moving efficiently; broad chests for lung capacity and strength for prolonged barking; loose skin to reduce injury from bites; strong jaws for gripping prey; and tenaciousness, persistence and extraordinary courage needed to face badgers underground, alone.
These traits remain deeply ingrained – even in today’s miniature, long-haired house pets.
Hunting a badger was one of the most dangerous tasks for a dog. A dachshund was expected to enter a dark, cramped tunnel, track the badger by scent, confront it, bark loudly to alert hunters above and either hold the badger in place or drive it out of the tunnel. All of this happened underground, where the dog could not turn around easily and escape was difficult. The badger had the advantage of familiarity and strength. A single mistake could mean severe injury or death to the dog.
Dachshunds were bred to confront an animal that was strong, aggressive, subterranean and dangerous. The badger shaped the dachshund into a dog far braver than its size suggests.
Just as understanding the badger helps us to understand the dachshund, understanding God might help us explain why we look and behave the way we do.
Scripture tells us that we are not accidents of biology or history. “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them …” Genesis 1:27, NIV. Our design – physical, emotional and spiritual – flows from a Creator who acts with intention.
Take a look at your family tree. We don’t have to go back many generations to realize how many ancestors each of us has – how many countless human beings over untold generations have come before us.
All those people and others about whom there is no historical record, lived lives and survived long enough to father and mother the next generation.
What about us? Rosie was bred to hunt badgers. That was done by human beings over time, who selected specific dogs who had the traits they desired. But God is different. Unlike selective breeding, God’s design is not mechanical or impersonal. Scripture teaches that God creates through means we can study – biology, inheritance, time – yet remains sovereign over the outcome. Faith does not deny genetics; it proclaims that genetics themselves exist within God’s creative will.
The human genome is all of the DNA packed into 23 pairs of chromosomes in the nucleus of every human cell. We inherit one chromosome of each pair from our mother and one from our father. The human genome is the complete set of genetic instructions that make a human being. It tells our body how to grow, develop, function and repair itself.
And that information is stored in nearly every one of the approximately 37 trillion cells of our body.
We are all made in God’s image. To be made in His image means more than having intelligence or creativity. It means we are capable of love, moral choice, relationship, sacrifice and worship. It means every human life has dignity, purpose and worth – regardless of success, strength or circumstance.
In addition to our physical makeup, God also works on our temperaments and personalities to shape us by our experiences, sufferings and loves, into the persons He desires us to be. Scripture is also honest about why this shaping often involves pain. The world is not as it was created to be. Sin fractured our relationship with God, with one another and even with ourselves (Genesis 3; Romans 8:20–22). Yet God continues to work within brokenness to redeem, restore and call us.
Think back to your family tree. All those folks were created in the image of God by inheriting the human genome from their parents. During their lifetimes, they overcame whatever challenges faced them and lived long enough to procreate. Thankfully, because of God’s love, mercy and grace, and the survival traits they accumulated, we are alive today.
What are we individually bred to be? Scripture suggests that while we are created, we are also called. “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” Ephesians 2:10, NIV.
What are we collectively bred to be?
Have you ever wondered why, in the context of eternity, God chose to place your eternal soul in your particular body, in the family you’re in at this particular time in history and in this particular place?
The human race is ancient, spanning countless generations. God works across these generations, weaving each of us into His grand narrative. Although we may not fully understand how our individual lives play into His Story, we can trust that each of us plays a crucial role. And that role, as it is fulfilled, gives relevance and meaning to our lives, even if we do not see that meaning fully revealed in our lifetime.
While Rosie’s ancestors began with a wolf and were selectively shaped by human hands to face a dangerous enemy underground, our story is different. We were designed by the Almighty Creator of the universe – intentionally, lovingly and with purpose. God breathed life into the first human and fashioned an extraordinarily complex cellular system – the human genome – through which every person would come into being. Not randomly. Not accidentally. But according to His will.
Each of us carries that divine imprint. Each of us was placed – deliberately – into a particular body, a particular family, a particular moment in history and a particular place. Nothing about our lives is accidental.
Like a dachshund confronting a badger in the dark, we often face challenges we did not choose and cannot avoid. We do not always understand the danger before us, the reason for the struggle or the purpose behind the pain. But we were made for this moment. God has equipped us – through inheritance, experience, suffering, love and grace – for the lives we are now living.
The clearest sign of this truth is Jesus Christ. In Him we see both God’s purpose and God’s promise: that death does not win, suffering is not wasted and love has the final word.
REMEMBER & BELIEVE
Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.
In the meantime, we were not bred for comfort, but for purpose -
and God knows exactly why we are here!
QUESTION
Why do you think, in the context of eternity, God chose to place your eternal soul in your body, in your family, at this time in history and in this place?
PRAYER
Thank You Lord, for placing each of us with whom we are, where we are and when we are according to your will. Help us to trust You when we cannot see Your purpose clearly. Shape our hearts, guide our steps, and teach us to live faithfully until Your purposes are revealed. Thy will be done.
Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil and the evil one. For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.
Amen
“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24, ESV
God bless you!
Richard
Christ Worshipper | Disciple Maker | Hope Giver
Welcome to In the Meantime. I'm glad you're here! We are living in the time between Christ's ascension into heaven and His promised return to earth. In the Meantime is a collection of stories about God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and His presence, love, mercy and grace in my life. In the Meantime, Jesus is Lord! Hallelujah!
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