The Friendship from Animals: A True Gift from God

"...he will be our friend for always and always and always." ~ Rudyard Kipling "Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened." ~ Anatole France The above two quotes are taken from a Animal Sanctuary called “HowlMore” in the Columbia area. Here is their website: http://www.howlmore.org. The website and mission is connected with a former chaplain supervisor of mine. I really admire the work they do at HowlMore. It is so needed since every living creature, including humans, need a warm house, regular meals and good friendship. The first quote above talks about friendship never ending: it is always in existence and never goes away, maybe not even in death. The second quote talks about the awakening of one’s soul when one has loved a pet. Has your soul been awakened by the love of a pet animal? No doubt many of us can tell stories about our first pet dog or first pet cat or pet hamster. They are loving memories for many of us. Today I hope this short meditational thought harkens you back to your favorite pet who has gone on to “dog or cat heaven” or maybe the pet is alive and you will be seeing him or her today. Surely their friendship is a gift from God. Psalm 8 says that humanity is made a little lower than angels and we as humans have the custodial task of caring for the animals of our world as we are able to do so. May we do that well, afterall, they usually take good care of us! Dear God: Thank you for my past and present pets. They are all gifts who share friendship, love and presence. Help me and the rest of the human community to look out for them as they look out for all of us. Amen.