Beagles Discover the Outdoors

I’m not into “touching,” kid and dog videos because I don’t much like being emotionally manipulated, but this is the exception. These dogs have spent their entire lives in laboratory kennels, and this captures their first exposure—ever—to the outdoors. I was predictably touched.

Compassion is one thing, but "animal rights" activism is quite another.  If PETA had their way, there'd be no animal ownership, and our human rights would be subordinate to animal rights. I do sympathize with part of their motivation, though, as too many people view their ownership of animals as license for abuse, unable or unwilling to empathize with with their physical and emotional pain. If that cruel behavior were directed at humans, the abusers would be labeled as sociopaths. We arrogant human beings think animals are "lower life forms," unable to think or feel as we do. Yet, they have faculties we humans can't imagine, let alone understand. God put them on Earth with us, to complement and help us in our stewardship of His creation, not as targets for our rage and sadism.

I've been going through the Bible in a year (not yet halfway through), and even though I understand what God was trying to get across to humanity under the Old Covenant, I have a hard time with the animal sacrifice and genocide God commanded his people to carry out. Because of our humanistic sensibilities, God's methods of dealing with the sin problem offend us. But humanism doesn't take into account the gross evils man has, and is, perpetrating because of our inherent rebelliousness. We self-righteously judge God when circumstances turn against us, like ants who are unable to grasp the simplest aspects of human thought or motivation, shaking their fists(if ants had fists) at people walking across "their" lawn.

The only alternative to this chronic discontent is to trust God, which goes directly against human nature. We understand that domestic animals trust us and feel great affection toward us, even though they can't understand our higher thought processes. Why, then, can we not grasp the simplicity of loving and trusting God through Jesus, our Christ and Savior?

 

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