Pet Ownership

Lesson 4: The Rainbow Bridge

Coping With Pet Loss

Losing a pet can be one of the most devastating sorrows in your life. You loved each other, cared for each other, depended on each other, and shared special times together. His passing slices your soul like a flaming arrow and the pain is not easily relieved. How do you cope with this intense ache? Where do you turn for comfort and hope?

Many people find comfort in creating a memorial or tribute, or something to mark the life of their loved one. We find many ways to cherish the love that was shared. I’ve seen lockets worn close to the heart holding a clip of hair inside. I’ve seen pet jewelry, memorial donations, beautiful scrapbooks and photo albums, read touching stories and poems. All of these things can be a comfort and a release for the grief that’s deep inside, but I have found that the security of knowing that your pet is in a safe place and the hope of one day being reunited, will ease the hurt more than anything else.

The subject of animals going to heaven is controversial. Some adamantly say that this is just something we comfort children with and that when animals die, that’s the end and there are no animals in heaven. There are others who say animals go to heaven because that is what they want to believe, but not many people have anything solid on which to base that belief. However, there is much evidence in the Bible that supports animals in heaven.

Job 12:10 says that God holds in His hand the "soul of every living thing". In Revelation 4:1-2 and Rev 5:13 a scene in heaven is described with "every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under 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." Notice "every creature" is praising God.

God is eternal and all life comes from God. All living things are created with His eternal life. Psalm 104:30 speaks directly of the beasts mentioned in verse 25, stating that He sends forth His spirit to create them. In the beginning, He created a perfect world, breathing life into all humans and all animals, intending them to live forever in perfect peace. There was no death, and humans and animals alike ate fruits and vegetables (Genesis 1:29-30). There was no labor, no working animals. All animals were tame, companion animals.

Fear, sorrow and death entered only after the disobedience of mankind but God, in His mercy, sent mankind a perfect savior so that we could be redeemed to eternal life once more. Without knowledge of good and evil, animals, as innocent children, have no need of repentance, but their eternal life which came from God will not simply stop when their bodies die, so we can conclude that He has provided for their eternal life.

God put animals in Eden, saved them in the ark, covenanted with them in Genesis 9:16, and He has a plan of peace for them in the future as described in Isaiah 11:6-9. “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Notice that the lion will eat straw like the ox so that no creature will die even as food for another. Imagine lions enjoying straw as much as cows do!

The scripture in I John 4:8 that says"...God is love" tells us that the love we share with our pets is from God, and He, in His holiness, loves them, surely even more than we do.

Psalm 36:6-7 "...O Lord, thou preservest man and beast. How excellent is they loving kindness, O God!..."

For a more in-depth study on this subject, visit http://www.all-creatures.org/bookallcrea...

Especially http://www.all-creatures.org/book/book-a...

  1  2  3