Monday; June 21

I don’t usually pay much attention to those “Online Reader Polls” that are often published in newspapers, but one got my attention the other day. The question was “Which of these pandemic habits will you miss the most?”. There were several choices that received varying degrees of responses, but the one that got the most support was “Chilling with your pets all day” (almost 42% of all votes). Now, before we move on, I have to say that I understand the unscientific nature of these polls, so I try not to take them too seriously; however, I do think this gives us a glimpse into our modern society. I like animals and we have even had several pets – from rabbits to horses – including a dog that lived in our house for over a decade. I understand that our pets become a part of our family, but today’s view of the value of pets and animals in our lives raises the question: why are they so important? Have we become so close to our animals because we have become distant from people? I understand that cuddling a puppy is often much easier than hugging a neighbor or that sitting quietly with a cat is much more simple than carrying on a difficult conversation with a family member; but, when we choose animals over people, we begin to shut off an important part of our human development. When this becomes too engrained in society it has the tendency to humanize critters and devalue human life.
I am thankful that our society is kinder to animals than past generations, but let’s not lose sight of an important aspect of God and His world. As Moses describes the beginnings of the world he observed, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27). Let’s enjoy our pets, but let’s not fail to value God’s most precious creation – humans.

Think About It! 

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