Pity them, the animals, the pets we come to love. They have no sense of the future. They share this with many people I am afraid. But people have the Word, and life's experiences not available to the animals. For them then, there is the now. They do not understand as they get old or sick, that this is a part of life. And they do not realize the curse that came upon the whole earth long ago.
In a way it is a blessing. Who else can enjoy the present as they do? A cat can make a bundle of fun out of a grocery bag, or better yet, a nice empty box. A dog can gnaw patiently on a bone, then sleep on a sunny porch. To them life can be so good.
Who remembers the paintings of the Quaker Edward Hicks? His repeated theme of animals living peacefully with one another are a joy to contemplate. People, often little children, and animals were in over one hundred paintings drawn from Isaiah chapter eleven. They were in the Peaceable Kingdom he envisioned.
And they will be some day. The Bible promises that. But a terrible time will come upon the whole world first. Maybe that is why some of us avoid parts of the Bible? But let us all thrill to the greatest "animal passage" of them all:
And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. Revelation 5:13
When Jesus is shown to us in this great book, it is as the Lamb.
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