“The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpents meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.” (Isaiah 65:25) Have you ever given much thought to whether animals have a soul? I have noticed that this subject gets quite a bit of debate, and a good bit of it is unnecessarily heated. I don’t know if a critter has a “soul” exactly the same as a human, but I know that they have personalities and feelings as much as anyone. And you sure do get attached to them. We had a big, orange tabby cat once, named, very originally, “Tabby”. We got her when she was a year old in 1987, and had her until 2003, which would have made her about 17 or 18 years old. I was on the way home from work one day and Valerie called me in tears. She had been backing out of our driveway and Tabby, old and weak, had been napping under the car. The tire flattened the rear half of her body and hind legs – there was no blood because her ancient bones were crushed to powder like chalk. She was still alive when I got there, and had dragged herself midway across the yard with her front paws. There was no veterinarian open at that time of the evening, so I went inside and got a rifle. When I came out, it was as if she knew what I was there for, and I swear she looked at me as if to say “Please do it quickly”. She then turned away, and I fired. She slumped down without a twitch, and I sat down on the steps and wept like a child. My neighbor, Mr. Gaddy, had recently lost his wife and the old cat had visited them daily for years. He was absolutely stricken. He absent-mindedly picked up a tool box and emptied it on his porch to use for a coffin. We wrapped old Tabby in a towel, placed her in the box, and together, buried her under Mr. Gaddy’s grape arbor, where she’d spent many an afternoon surveying her domain from the shade. I am not a “cat person”, but I sure hope I see old Tabby again someday. And if I am sinning by that hope, well Whoop-Tee-Doo! If that is the worst a man does, then I’d say he’s in pretty fair standing with the Lord. The Bible, so far as I know, does not say thou shalt not believe an animal has a soul, but St. Matthew 6:26 does say that even a sparrow does not fall but what God knows about it. One Sunday, Mary Elizabeth got back from Sunday School with a wrinkled brow, and Valerie asked what was wrong. The teacher had stood up there and dedicated the biggest part of the lesson to the idea that it is a sin to hope you’ll see your pet in Heaven, because animals do not have souls. She went so far as to describe in detail how animals will just decay and turn to dust – and to think otherwise is just a sinful delusion. Of course, this lady also corrected their “form” during prayer – stating that a proper prayer involved pressing the palms of the hands together with the fingers all pointed towards Heaven – if you clasped your hands with the fingers pointing down, you were sinning by unconsciously indicating a preference for Hell. Seems to me it is more sinful to willfully, publicly, talk like a pure old nut in the name of our Savior. Rather than flying off and paying this person a visit, diplomacy prevailed. Valerie and I had a talk with M.E., and I think she understood. God’s ways and thoughts are not the same as ours – and the teacher’s idea was just a human opinion – and, if you ask me, a bloody awful one that should have been kept private. What the Lord has in store for us in Heaven will exceed anything we can imagine, and all of our little human interpretations of His Word, I am certain, will not be very accurate. It never ceases to amaze me how fervently and passionately some folks will proclaim what they “know” awaits us on the other side – even to the point of stating that folks who believe otherwise are destined for eternal damnation. I thought of writing about this today because M.E. lost her little budgie, Yuri, yesterday. We’d had him since around 2005 – I cannot remember seeing my reserved and quiet child so excited and overjoyed as she was the day we got that bird! She read to him, taught him to speak, and had fun with him – and I think Yuri enjoyed M.E. fully as much as she enjoyed him. I believe that, if an animal doesn’t have a soul per se, it must have something approaching it. I have seen too many animals that acted more human than a lot of humans – in a good way. I once saw a mother rabbit trying to lure away a cat which had cornered its baby – my Uncle Jin hurried over and rescued the little bunny in time, and the mama toted it off, just like a cat does, by the scruff of its neck (I never knew rabbits carried their babies like that). I have read numerous accounts of dogs risking their lives – and sometimes sacrificing themselves – for their masters or even for humans they didn’t even know. Some people will say it is a conditioned response or a survival instinct – I say it is because many animals are capable of love and devotion. And I think the Lord takes care of birds and beasts, flowers and trees, in His own way. Of course, that is just my opinion. The folks who seem to howl the loudest about animals having no part in Heaven are the same ones who howl the loudest that God is omnipotent and can do anything He wants. Never could figure that logic. I think some folks just like to have something to be sour and negative about. I can’t imagine a fisherman going to a Heaven where there are no fish. Or a birdwatcher unable to see a bird over there. Or Mamaw Singleton spending eternity without her beloved cats, Sissie, Bro and Baby, or Aunt Ada Messer without her little dog, Watch, or M.E. without Yuri being able to sit on her finger once in awhile! I firmly believe that God the Father, in His wisdom and mercy, will provide us with what makes us happy in Heaven – and if a beloved animal is a true part of that happiness, then I do not think He will deny it to His children! Hope everyone has a glorious First Sunday of Advent!
Posted on: Sun, 01 Dec 2013 06:41:55 +0000
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