3 Ways to Show Pastoral Care for God's Creatures Great and Small

Those of you who've read my book, Walking Through Twilight, know that my dog Sonny is mentioned numerous times. He was a gift from God for my first wife Becky and myself, as we suffered together through her dementia and through her death in 2018. 

An old stanza from an old poem by Francis Alexander sets the tone for today's episode of Truth Tribe:

All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.

Animals and humans were created by God to live together in harmony. Of course, the fall and the flood changed all that. But all the living kinds that God created remain good, as Genesis 1 teaches. Paul the Apostle, of course, agrees. "For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer." 1 Timothy 4: 4-5

The Bible teaches us that humans alone bear the image of God, Genesis 1:26 and that this image remains after the fall. We see that in Genesis 9. Since man, since human beings are made in the image and likeness of God, that image cannot be denied. It cannot be eradicated. This heartbreak between humans and the rest of God's creation does not imply that men and women can treat animals any way they wish. Animals are not mere fodder for human whims.

Today, without developing a whole theology of the animal world, I offer a few principles for how Christians can show pastoral concern to animals, whether or not they interact with them regularly and directly.

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