Don't separate pets from God and growing in love

With the passing yesterday of our 11-year-old cat Mittens, I offer this thought. Farm animals live with humans, but they exist for the purpose of performing work or becoming food. Pets exist for no other reason than to love and be loved by the people they live with. In this way, pets become an important part of the life of love each of us is called into by God.

Will pets be in heaven? Someone told me that C. S. Lewis has argued that maybe they will. I say that if pets are indeed part of our life of love, the same love that is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5), then maybe so. Who knows? Perhaps God will bring our pets with us into the new creation. If we can sanctify our children just by providing a household for them, then maybe we can sanctify our pets too (1 Cor 7:14). (This is pure conjecture. Don't get too wound up over these musings.)

But even if not, having a pet can open up important spiritual dimensions in our lives. My point? Don't separate pets from God and sanctification. Pets make a big difference in "learning to live loved" (William Young).

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