ANIMALS AND GOD'S GLORY

Posted: 02.02.20 in Articles category

Here is an extract from an impressive article written by Northumbrian vicar, Dr Alan Gregory, which I came across last year. He makes the key point that animals are loved by God as and for themselves, and not because any relationship to us as human beings.

"Animals present us with mystery - not the mystery that has a solution - the sort of mystery that belongs to creatures as creatures of God. The Bible certainly gives human beings a very special place in creation and it also charges us with a responsibility for our fellow creatures, some of whom have been and are essential for our lives. Nevertheless, animals are more than our relationship with them. God has them in mind in their difference, in their uniqueness, on their own terms. "The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God." The mystery of an animal is the mystery of a creature related to God in its own way, a creature not only loved because of its relationship to humanity, certainly not only loved as a stage in planetary evolution that climaxes with us. An animal is mysterious as an unknown fellow-creature, with its own peculiar interiority, whether that's complex or simple; a creature loved by God for itself, present in His purposes for itself. Perhaps only in the new creation will we be truly privy to the secret of God's delight in the non-human world. Perhaps only then will we praise God fully and properly for our fellow creatures, fulfill our calling to give spoken praise for the length and breadth of God's gifts in creation."