Having, Losing, and Regaining Pets

My computer is down this week. So I am composing this meditation on the computer at my local library. Thank God for libraries!

In our previous meditations we have looked at what the Scriptures have to say about having and caring for pets. We have also considered the grief that comes with losing a beloved pet. And we have addressed the question about pets and the afterlife. Although an animal possesses consciousness, its consciousness is strictly tied to its physical being and never acts independently of it. Therefore, when the body of an animal dies, its consciousness dies with it. So animals do not continue to exist after death as humans do. An animal has a soul, but it does not have an immortal soul. Its soul perishes with its body. This being the case, are pets then something we can only enjoy in this life? Are there no pets in the next life? These questions bring us to today's meditation in which we shall deal with regaining pets.

Recall from our first meditation that before the fall there was no hostility between men and animals. It is an effect of the fall that animals have a fear and dread of man that will cause them to either run away from man or fight back.

Genesis 9:2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.

Because of this fear and dread, animals need to be tamed if we are to make pets of them.

Now the Scriptures plainly teach that there will be animals in the world to come. In Hebrews 2 Paul writes of the world to come and that it will be in subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 2:5 For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.
6 But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him?
7 Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands:
8 Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.
9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

In this passage the apostle is quoting the eighth Psalm and clearly applying it to the Lord Jesus Christ. In the world to come, which we see not yet, all things will be put into subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is crowned with glory and honour. Now the thing that is relevant to our meditation today is that animals are included in "all things" that will be in subjection to Christ in the world to come. This can be seen by looking at Psalm 8, which Paul was quoting.

Psalm 8:4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

In that world to come, also called a "new heavens and a new earth," there will be animals. All the animals there will be tame being in absolute subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ. No carnivores will be found among the animals. There will be no fear and dread of man, but there will be perfect harmony between all creatures. There will be beasts, but there will be no evil beasts. The following two passages speak clearly to this:

Isaiah 65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.

Ezekiel 34:25 And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.

Our Lord gave us a sampling of His dominion over the animals at His first coming. On one occasion He ordered the fishes of the sea to a specific place so that they could be caught by his disciples and this after the disciples had "toiled all the night" and had "taken nothing" (Luke 5:4-6). On another occasion our Lord rode a colt "whereon yet never man sat" and there is no hint that the colt resisted in any way (Luke 19:29-36).

Now think of some beloved pet you have lost. I am thinking of my daughter's little gray parakeet Sugarbaby. Who is to say that when you arrive at your long sought home on the new earth, you might not encounter an animal that will be every bit as beautiful and sweet as the one you lost but only more so? I can imagine a little gray parakeet flying up to me and lighting on my shoulder jubilating the praises of its Maker. This little bird will be everything good that our little bird was and more. I'll rub my glorified nose on his cuddly, feathery breast as I enjoy this creation of God. The joy that this little bird will bring will be perfect, better than any joy our little pet brought us here. In a curious way that I cannot fully explain, I suspect that it will seem like I have reconnected to something I loved and lost awile. And there will never be the fear of losing him. But neither will we have the emotional weaknesses that we sometimes look to companions and pets to satisfy. For we shall be emotionally whole and eternally satisfied in a secure and abiding fellowship with God. We will be able to enjoy our pets as gifts of God without making little gods of them as some might do in this fallen world. We together with all creatures will live holily, happily, harmoniously, and peacefully basking in the light of God's radiant face forever and ever and ever. I can't wait! "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

Having, Losing, and Regaining Pets, Part 2

In our last meditation we considered an example given in Scripture of a man who had such regard for his little ewe lamb that he treated it like a member of the family. When a pet is like a family member, the loss of it can be a very grievous thing. When I was growing up in Florida, we had a neighbour that had a dachshund. He dearly, and I mean dearly, loved this dog. Sadly, one day it was run over by a car and killed. This neighbour grieved over the loss of that dog until the day of his death. He never really got over it.

In the past I have been asked if there is some kind of afterlife for animals. This question is understandable. When an animal becomes a pet and is regarded like a family member, one would like to think their existence goes on somewhere else rather than just terminating altogether. The reason for this is that the animal has been loved and one does not relish the thought of being forever separated from something loved so much.

We tend to attribute human characteristics to a pet. I know in our family, my wife and daughter would sometimes carry on an imagined dialogue with one pretending to speak for the pet. But the truth is, a pet is an animal, not a human being. Death does not mean to an animal what it means to us. Animals do not think and reason like human beings. They do not possess human intelligence. In fact, Scripture refers to them as "brute beasts" (2 Peter 2:12; Jude 1:10). Note the definition of brute.

Brute - Of animals: Wanting in reason or understanding; chiefly in phrases brute beasts, the brute creation,= the 'lower animals'.

You do not reason with an animal as you reason with a human being. You can train animals to do some pretty amazing things, but you do not train them by sitting them down and explaining to them what they need to do. In order to train an animal, you have to work with his physical senses by presenting rewards and punishments until the animal learns the behaviour you want. The animal learns only through his physical senses apart from any reasoning. For example, you can train a dog to come to you in response to a certain word. You make the sound and the animal responds. The animal learns to recognize the sound of the word and to respond to it. But the animal does not know the meaning of the word. He merely recognizes the sound. When a parrot talks, he is merely making learned noises. He has no understanding of the meaning of what he is saying. This is because he is a brute beast. He has no reason or understanding. And when an animal does something like a bird building a nest or a beaver building a dam, he does so instinctively, not intelligently. This is not a learned behaviour, like a human being might learn to build a house. This is rather instinctive behaviour.

When you present a stimulus to an animal such as food, or sound, or physical affection, the animal is capable of being aware of that stimulus and responding to it. Take food as an example. One day an animal might see food and want it whereas on another day he might see it and reject it. This is not something that plants do. Plants show no awareness of objects with which they come in contact. But animals and humans do show awareness of objects around them and they are capable of responding to those objects by either desiring them or not desiring them. However,there is a difference between the awareness of animals and the awareness of humans. An animal is aware of food, but he not aware of food as food. A dog does not look at a hunk of meat and think of it as meat. He does not say to himself, "Gee, I'm hungry and that hunk of beef looks great. I think I'll have some." The animal simply feels hunger, sees and smells the meat, and eats it. But he does not see himself as a feeling, seeing, smelling, eating being as you do. He does things, but he does not understand that he does them. Being a brute beast he has no such power of reason and understanding. He is not capable of self-reflection as you are. He does not look upon his own actions and judge them as you do. He simply does or does not do things based upon his physical sensations. Although he is aware of objects and can respond to them, he is not aware that he is aware. His awareness cannot turn and examine itself. Or to put it another way, an animal possesses consciousness, but not self-consciousness. From this we conclude that an animal's awareness is strictly tied to his physical being and sensation without any rational thought or self-consciousness. Therefore, when an animal dies, when his physical being ceases to be, his awareness ceases with it.

You are a human being with a rational, understanding soul that is aware of things and is aware that he is aware. Your awareness can reflect upon your physical being and pass judgment on its desires and actions. You possess self-consciousness. The fact that you can be aware of your physical being and its functions and pass judgment upon them shows that your awareness is not strictly tied to your physical being. There is something about you that can act apart from your physical being. Therefore, your awareness will continue after your body dies. But such is not the case with animals. An animal's awareness dies with his body. And this is precisely what the Scriptures teach:

Ecclesiastes 3:20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

When a man and a beast die, the bodies of both go back to the dust. But when a man dies, his spirit goes to God whereas the spirit of the beast goes down to the earth like his body.

Now I realize that what I am saying is probably little comfort to someone who has just lost a beloved pet. But keep in mind that an animal has no self-consciousness. He does not reflect upon himself. Therefore, when a animal is dying, he does not know he is dying. He is just dying. It is as natural for him to die as it is to breathe and eat. To be sure, he will fight to live. But he does this merely by instinct. It is not like he understands what death is and is, therefore, trying to avoid it. So death does not have the meaning to an animal that it has to you.

I realize that I have waxed somewhat philosophical today, but I trust this will make sense to you and give you a better understanding of the difference between animals and human beings. But you will notice that there is one part of this meditation that remains to be considered and that is the part about regaining pets. God willing, we shall consider that next time.

Having, Losing, and Regaining Pets, Part 1

This will be a most unusual meditation for me. I broach a subject that I do not recall ever dealing with extensively. My thoughts on this have been stirred because two souls under my pastoral care recently lost a beloved pet. One lost a dog had from childhood and another lost a cat. Both of these people were very grieved over their loss. This set me to thinking about what the Scriptures have to say about animals, particularly about animals that people make pets of. I think that at some point in my ministry I should speak to this subject, especially since the Bible has some things to say about it.

I will say at the outset that I am not a great animal lover. Growing up we did have some pets, but I do not recall ever grieving that much when we lost them. I had a parakeet - a budgie if you are Canadian - that lived about eight years. I got him for a birthday present when I was ten years old. He was a sweet little bird. I named him Pretty Boy. I regret that in later years I was not as attentive to him as I should have been. I just got busy with other things. Currently, my wife and I have no pets and we intend to keep it that way. My two oldest daughters had no great interest in pets and that was fine with us. However, my third daughter loves animals and wanted pets. But we only allowed birds, no cats or dogs! My daughter had one pet, a gray parakeet that I developed a fondness for. He was a birthday present to her. I recall going to the pet store with her to purchase a bird. This little bird was in a large cage with other parakeets. While we were looking over the selection, our little bird attached himself to the side of the cage and let me stroke his breast. When I pointed this out to my daughter, she fell for him and he became a new member of our household. His name was Sugarbaby. He loved me. When we let him out of the cage to fly about the house, he would fly to me when I walked through the room. He learned to say some things. Joan Evennou kept him for us one time and said that he laughed like me. Poor creature! Then one day he got out of the house and flew away. This happened while my daughter was at school. One of the most painful things I ever had to do was to tell my daughter that her little bird was gone. She was devastated. I can still see my baby girl wandering about the yard crying and calling out for her little bird that never came back. I remember seeing her that evening on her knees sobbing her heart out to God and remembering how happy her little bird had been. The memory of this pains me to this day. I hope I have not wearied you with this sojourn down memory lane. I just want you to know that I know something of the sorrow of losing beloved pets.

Let’s begin by defining the word pet.

Any animal that is domesticated or tamed and kept as a favourite, or treated with indulgence and fondness.

Although the word pet is not found in the Bible, pets are found, as we shall see.

Now the word animal does not occur in the A.V. 1611. In the Bible animals are called beasts, fowl, or creeping things. The general word covering all animals would be beast.

In the beginning of creation, before man’s fall into sin, none of the animals were hostile. There was no death and destruction such as came after sin entered into the world. Before the fall, no beast posed a threat to man. But with the fall man’s environment, the beasts included, became hostile.

In the beginning, all the beasts were vegetarian.

Genesis 1:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

But with the fall some of the beasts became carnivores and would even kill men. Hence these words to Noah after the flood:

Genesis 9:5 And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man.

Now a man must tame a beast if he would make a pet of him. Consider the definition of tame and a Bible verse that uses the word when speaking of beasts.

Tame – To bring (a wild animal) under the control or into the service of man; to reclaim from the wild state, to domesticate.

James 3:7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:

Scripture teaches the owner of an animal to have regard for it and its needs.

Proverbs 12:10 A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

Deuteronomy 25:4 Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.

So if you are going to own an animal, you should take care of it. While God allows us to kill beasts for food, God does not want us to be cruel to them.

When someone owns an animal and cares for it, he often develops affection for the animal and the animal for him. Thus the animal becomes a pet. Pets have a way of becoming part of the family. There is a tender story about this in the Bible.

2 Samuel 12:1 And the LORD sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.
2 The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds:
3 But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter.

I am sure some of you that own or have owned pets can relate to this story. This little lamb was “unto him as a daughter.” She became part of the family. She was a pet by definition. A pet like this little ewe lamb is something to bestow affection upon and to return affection. It has been observed that owning a pet can be therapeutic for elderly people suffering from loneliness. It gives them something to love and care for. It is a living being that can respond to the attention of its owner. A pet can be something to play with, something that brings joy. The book of Job mentions playing with a bird (Job 41:5). I know something about that. Indeed, pets can be a blessing of God. But when a pet is loved and cared for in the manner I am describing, the loss of it can be very grievous. But I will address that in another meditation, God willing.