Good Ol' Snoopy: The Power Of A Dream Series

Good Ol’ Snoopy

My favorite character in the Peanuts world has to be Snoopy and as a kid I couldn’t understand why the strip wasn’t called “Snoopy” instead of “Peanuts”, I assumed that he was the main character and the rest of the cast were just supporting actors. And we all have favorite Snoopy moments and characters. Perhaps Snoopy as Joe Cool, or a lawyer or a tennis ace, maybe it’s Snoopy as the leader of the Beagle Scouts.

The most iconic of course is Snoopy as the World War I ace gunning for the elusive Red Baron. And that was made even more popular with the two songs “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron” and then “Snoopy’s Christmas”, both of which went to the top of the charts in 1966 and 1967.

Snoopy decorates his doghouse for Christmas and wins, he organizes a hockey game for his pal Woodstock on his water bowl, complete with a Zamboni. He walks on his hind legs at time and dispenses advice to those who will listen. Robert Short who wrote the book “The Gospel According to Peanuts” back in the sixties had this to say about Snoopy: “Snoopy is a typical Christian, a flawed character who is nonetheless good: He is lazy, he is a ‘chow hound’ without parallel, he is bitingly sarcastic, he is frequently a coward, but he is ‘a hound of heaven.’”

Which might explain Snoopy’s desire to write a book on Theology. Here are some highlights from Snoopy’s life. (profile video)

And everyone takes it in stride that perhaps this is normal behaviour for a dog, except of course Peppermint Patty who refers to Snoopy as “That funny looking kid”. And at least once Charlie Brown says his wish is “To just have an ordinary dog, like other people!’’

But what fun would that be? Snoopy shows up in the third Peanuts strip that Charles Schulz drew and through the years we discovered a few things about Snoopy. We all know where he came from, Daisy Hill Puppy Farm. If you paid attention to the strip than you know that we have been introduced to four brothers, a sister, both parents and a nephew.

And a little known fact, Charlie Brown was not Snoopy’s original owner. That would be a little girl named Lila whose family adopted Snoopy but discovered their apartment was no place to raise a beagle, especially one as eccentric as Snoopy and so they returned him to Daisy Hill where Charlie Brown obtained him as a “used dog”.

The debate has raged for years over what type of dog Snoopy actually is but he was called a beagle throughout the strip and with the one exception of when he told Charlie Brown “I ain’t no stupid beagle!”, he even identified himself as a beagle.

But the question still remains “So what?” What is it we can learn from Snoopy?

Well here is a shocker, Snoopy wasn’t really a famous flying ace, or a tennis pro or Joe Cool, anywhere other than his mind. Snoopy was a dreamer. He knew he was a dog, but those other things were what he dreamed he could be.

In the scripture that was read earlier we discovered another dreamer. His name was Joseph, and the Bible miniseries on the History channel skipped him completely but you really can’t understand the story of Moses without the story of Joseph.

And when we first meet Joseph he is just a kid. A kid who had dreams A kid who was loved by his father and a kid who was loathed by his brothers. Perhaps you know of him?

Joseph’s father Jacob, who would be Abraham’s grandson, had settled with his family in Canaan which is now part of what we think of as Palestine. A part of Jacob’s immense family was seventeen year old Joseph.

Now to be real frank with you Joseph wasn’t the most popular member of that family, at least not among his siblings. And there is good reason for that listen to how the Bible describes the relationship between Joseph and his father Jacob, Genesis 37:3 Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph—a beautiful robe.

Now sometimes we do that with our kids, now I know that we claim that we don’t play favourites but reality says that there are times that one or another of the kids is more lovable then the others. But listen to Genesis 37:4 But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them. They couldn’t say a kind word to him.

You see that was the fatal mistake that Jacob made, it wasn’t that Jacob loved Joseph more than all the other sons. Unfortunately my friends that is a failing of the human condition, We may try to love all of our children equally but everyone knew that my parents didn’t. I know that my parents loved my sister more than me. It’s funny though because she knows that her parents loved me more than her. Oh well.