Wonder of Creation ? Blog Archive ? Beyond the Joy of Pets

If you continue reading the biblical story about Nathan and David in 2 Samuel 12 [see Friday?s post], you discover another very important understanding about life and death: because of God?s judgment, David and Bathsheba lost the child they conceived in sin, even though David fasted, slept on the ground, and pleaded with God for seven days to spare the child.? Yet when the child died, David ended his acts of remorse.? His servants were curious about that; so David told them, ?While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ?Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and let the child live.? But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.?

Many biblical commentators believe that what David was implying here is what John Wesley understood: ?Seeing [that] fasting and prayer cannot now prevail with God for his life. I shall go to him?into the state of the dead in which he is, and into heaven, where I doubt not I shall find him.? Understood that way this statement by David has brought a great deal of comfort over the centuries to those who have lost loved ones?children especially.? And it would certainly help answer some of our questions about God?s commanding Israel to judge the Canaanites by putting to death every man, woman, and child.? Were not the souls of the innocents more blessed in the loving arms of their Maker than suffering under the abuse of the wicked?

But what does that have to do with the destiny of animals?like the pet lamb in Nathan?s parable?? Consider some fascinating thoughts by George MacDonald in his commentary on Romans 8:18-24:

KEY SCRIPTURE:
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved (Romans 8:18-24).

MacDonald believed that the aspects of nature referenced to by Paul were sentient animals, and he asks these questions about them:

Are these not worth making immortal? How, then, were they worth calling out of the depth of non-being? Is it a greater deed to make be that which was not than to seal it with an infinite immortality: did God do that which was not worth doing? What He thought worth making [do] you think not worth continuing made! You would have Him go on forever creating new things with one hand, and annihilating those he had made with the other?for I presume you would not prefer the earth to be without animals!

http://mike-Ivey.fineartamerica.com

If it were harder for God to make the former go on living than to send forth new, then His creatures were no better than the toys which a child makes, and destroys as he makes them. For what good, for what divine purpose is the Maker of the sparrow present at its death if He does not care what becomes of it? What is He there for, I repeat, if He have no care that it go well with His bird in its dying, that it be neither comfortless nor lost in the abyss? If His presence be no good to the sparrow, are you very sure what good it will be to you when your hour comes? Believe it is not by a little only that the Heart of the universe is tenderer, more loving, more just and fair than yours or mine. . . .

I know of no reason why I should not look for the animals to rise again, in the same sense in which I hope myself to rise again?which is to reappear clothed with another and better form of life than before. If the Father will raise His children, why should He not also raise those whom He has taught His little ones to love? Love is the one bond of the universe, the heart of God, the life of His children: if animals can be loved, they are loveable; if they can love, they are yet more plainly loveable: love is eternal; how then should its object perish? [George MacDonald, Book: The Hope of the Gospel, Chapter: ?The Hope of the Universe?]

To be truthful, I?m not sure what to make of George MacDonald?s implications.? Because his commentary is a series of questions, I feel confident that MacDonald is expressing a hope and not declaring that the Bible insists that the animals we loved will join us in Glory.? It?s a hope based on what we know about the love of God.

Hubble Deep Space photos

Logic would make the observation that there would have to be a lot of room in heaven for all those animals.? Human logic, however, is finite.? The Hubble telescope, for instance, with its deep space photographs has given us evidence of magnitudes that surpass what human minds can grasp: billions of galaxies each with billions of stars, many of which may be surrounded by untold numbers of planets.? So our Creator has likely made enough of these to give an entire planet to every animal that has ever lived!

Enjoy the blessing of and responsibility for pets while they live, and when their souls return to their Maker at death, know that their ultimate fate is in the loving hands that were pierced for you and whose brow bled from the thorns of the loving curse He intended all along to reverse.? When that happens, we can know that the blessings we have known here will be surpassed in ways beyond present human imagination.? God?s love and care for His creatures is far greater than ours!? Why not take a few minutes to contemplate how amazing our loving Savior is by watching the classic duet by Sandi Patti and Larnelle Harris on YouTube here.
[Crown of thorns image source]

Source: http://wonderofcreation.org/2012/02/12/beyond-the-joy-of-pets/

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