On the same day that many in the nation mourned the death of Barbaro, I received an e-mail from a friend who talked about the grief that he and his wife experienced yesterday with the death of a cherished family pet. I empathize with the grief experienced by my friend and his wife. There is a very real sense in which pets become a part of our families. As a pastor I’ve been asked by parishioners, “Do animals go to heaven?” My reply has been that while we don’t have a portion of Scripture which answers this question as specifically as we might like, Romans 8 declares that even the creation itself will be redeemed:
19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
With this in mind, I think we can have some sense of hope that the pets we have loved will be “glorified.” Beyond the love and hope we have for pets, however, there should be a strong, deep love for other human beings. If people are able to raise over a million dollars to give to the millionaire owners of a horse for medical equipment, then they should be able to raise money to feed the poor and shelter the homeless. The people of God should be able to help take care of single mothers-to-be and “unwanted” children. We should be able to purchase medical equipment for pregnancy centers that seek to preserve life. Barbaro was a magnificent, yet he was not created in the image of God. The weakest, poorest, homeliest human being is greater than Barbaro.
Genesis 1:24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
