Recently I watched the movie Hachi with my mom. Hachi is based on the story of Hachi, a
dog who lived in Japan in the 1920’s.
The story goes that Hachi as a puppy got lost at a train station where a
Professor found him and took him home to provide him shelter for the
evening. When after several days
no one claimed Hachi, the Professor’s wife agreed to allow the Professor to
keep him. There began a very
unique relationship between man and dog.
Every day, Hachi would walk the Professor to the train station where he
would board the train to go to work.
Hachi would go home during the day and when evening came and the
Professor stepped off of the train to return home, there Hachi would be again waiting
for him.
One morning, Hachi walked the Professor to work as usual. That sad day, however, the Professor
had a heart attack, died and never returned. Hachi waited patiently at the train station until late in
the evening when finally someone came to retrieve him. Over the next few days, Hachi escaped from
his new home several times to return to the train station. Finally, his new owners let him
go. The story goes that for the
next nine years, Hachi waited every day at the train station for the Professor
to return. The passengers and
employees of the station got to know Hachi and fed him and cared for him so
that he could simply wait.
Eventually, Hachi died at the train station still waiting for the
Professor. Today there sits at
that station in Japan a stone statue of Hachi.
After watching the movie, I started thinking about who in my
life would wait for me.. every day without fail.. to return, to come home. Who in my life would sacrifice all
other activities, places, people, needs, to simply sit and watch and wait for me. That’s when I started thinking about
God.
I realized that God is always waiting for me to come home…
not necessarily simply in the eternal sense, not just when I die.. but that God
is waiting for me to return to God’s side, daily… perhaps, minute by minute. When I step away from the person I want
to be.. when I struggle and
question and doubt… when I fight and isolate… when I feel all alone.. when I am joyful and grateful… at all those times and many more, my
Creator.. my loyal companion is simply waiting for me to return. And God waits with the non-judgmental
love and compassion of Hachi…. God
waits not simply to judge us once we walk through those train station doors..
to ask us where we’ve been… no, my
God waits simply in order to rejoice at my homecoming.
I believe this may be true for us all… no matter what we are
experiencing this day, how hard life might seem, how truly alone
we might feel, what if we could imagine and truly believe that around every
corner there was an invisible Hachi just waiting to remind us that we are
loved, we are valuable, we are enough, we are home.
What if we could trust that the Universe would never abandon us and never give up on us.
