For the Love of All Creatures

Posted by: Allison on: January 5, 2016

• In: Teasers
• 10 Comments

When reviewing my latest selection of favorite books, I realized that the majority of them were about animals. The books brought to mind an essay I wrote back in high school about how God cares for his creation. I’m sharing my essay here for your enjoyment. 

One day a reddish-brown squirrel darted out beside a car in the parking lot of the high school that I attended. The curious creature freely explored the area until some boys spotted it. Then the squirrel found itself having to dart from stomping feet and flee from hurtling stones. It tried to retreat back under the car, but the boys began to shoot objects under the car. The squirrel was allowed no peace. Even as it slumped to the ground, barely able to breathe, the boys weren’t content. They finished it off.

Did you know God loved that squirrel? But it’s such a tiny creature! Why would a squirrel matter to God? The Bible quotes Jesus as saying, “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father.” (Matthew 10:29) When the Bible referred to a sparrow, the term typically meant any small bird. Jesus used the sparrow to emphasize how God values even the most insignificant life.

What about snakes and spiders? Who could love them? Surely not God! Well, think about the donkey. This brutish animal doesn’t win awards, the way that the stately horse does, but Jesus didn’t use a horse to ride through Jerusalem on Palm Sunday the way royalty often did. Instead he used a common donkey. “Behold the King cometh unto thee and sitting on a donkey.” (Matthew 21:5)

It’s something to think about, isn’t it? God created and cares for all animals. (If you really think about, why would God make and love what He doesn’t like?) Just imagine. God who is big and all powerful cherishes not only the big and strong or cute and loveable, but even the tiny and insignificant animals.

“All creatures great and small. The Lord God made them all,” wrote Cecil Frances Alexander in her Hymns for Little Children. The Bible does not in any one verse declare, “God loves all animals, including butterflies, frogs, birds, dogs, and squirrels.” Scriptures however do show God’s love for all his creation.

The first chapter of Genesis includes an account of God creating the animals. Other portions of the Bible tell too of God’s care for animals.

• Matthew 6:26: “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father cares for them.”
•  Matthew 8:20: “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests.”
• Psalms 104: 10-11, 14: He sends the springs into the valleys, which run along the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field. He causes the grass to grow for the cattle.
• Psalm 104:18: The high hills are a refuge for wild goats.

Clearly, it hurts God to see a butterfly have its delicate wings ripped off its tender body, a frog pelted with stones, a bird plummet to the earth from a slingshot, or a dog being kicked. Shouldn’t we then, as God’s caretakers of the world, also love his creation?

Tags: All Creatures Great and Small, Allison's Book Bag, reviews of books for young people