Of Birds & Puppies -- Do Animals Go To Heaven?

I remember the little bird that my children brought home one early spring day down in Houston, Texas. It was stormy and raining outside, and a little black bird had fallen out of its nest. It was injured in the fall, and I doubted that it would live. But because of the children, I gave it my best shot. I fed it and wrapped in a warm cloth and we took turns holding it, to keep it warm.

It struggled for a couple of days. I got up on the third day, just after midnight and sat with it, holding close, trying to keep it warm. I sat there with it until it needed me no longer.

I remember how I felt when it died that morning, after I had tried so hard to keep it alive. And I also remember how, just before it died, or just as it died, how it looked up toward the ceiling and spread it wings wide and flapped once — as though it were rising up into the early morning sky.

It was very early morning, still dark outside when the bird breathed its last on earth. But somehow I knew in my heart that for that little bird, as it rose up into the early morning sky, the clouds were all bright and shining with a brilliant golden light. I could see that much in my soul and spirit.

We know that God makes all things. And He alone gives life and gathers it back again. The "Preacher" in Ecclesiastes says,

"...Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,

And the spirit will return to God who gave it."

Some have said that animals will not be in the eternal city itself. I don't know. It simply says in Revelation that outside that city are dogs and liars and murderers, etc. It may be talking about the human kind of dogs, since everything else in the sentence is describing humans. But the Bible does not say that only human spirits will be in heaven. In fact it already tells us that creatures are there now, things that we have never seen on earth — creatures that live in heaven.

I cannot believe that God has ever made a living thing that is not precious to Him. When He allows a mortal body to breathe and live, that is a gift — but it’s a gift to the earth. And when the living breath of any living thing leaves its body, it does not simply vanish away into the air or into the night. We know that Scripture tells us that the human spirit lives forever. And so also I have no doubt anywhere in my soul that the life of every little creature (or even of large creatures, like whales and elephants) is just as everlasting.

When it leaves this place of storms and darkness, this world where pain and fear and horrible things happen (because human beings gave over the rule of this earth to evil) that breath of life, that creature's soul leaves this world, to go on back to the One who gave it life to begin with. And there that life remains forever, never to be troubled again — in the Presence of the One who is Light and joy and life forevermore. God would not make a thing so precious just to have it vaporize away into nothingness again. But He gathers every good thing to Himself, and keeps it forever.

I know that my little bird is up there in the heavens, somewhere in the vastness of white clouds that are forever bathed in golden light. I know that he flies higher than any eagle here on earth, and that he knows his Maker, and he pleases God by living on forever, and flying forever to the glory of the Lord.

And I believe that the little runts in so many litters of kittens and pups — the ones that die because they were too weak to keep going — are runts no longer. They are laughing and bounding little dogs and cats, leaping and running all over the streets that are said to be made of transparent gold.

I can’t imagine a gold that you can see through. But with my heart I can see countless wonderful things alive there in that bright place, running this way and that, playing forever in the Presence of God who takes great delight in all life and in everything that is good and pure.

And I know that a city and golden streets are not all that "heaven" has to offer.

The God who created streams and meadows, and all the bright colors in flowers, and the grand beauty of trees and mountains here on earth has not surrounded Himself with gold and diamonds alone. No, there are places for all living things all over the heavens, places where they live and run and fly endlessly.

Why else would the universe itself be so big that we have not yet even been able to measure it, although we have already determined that it would take light itself billions and billions of years to travel across what we can see so far. (And Abraham told the rich man who was in hell that they were separated by "a very great distance" so that Lazarus could not go from the good place to the place of punishment.)

Jesus said that in the Father's house (in heaven) there are many places to live (translated as mansions in the old King James Bible). And I don’t think that Jesus was any liar. And, as Jesus reminded the religious scholars of His day, God once said to Moses "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob..." and Jesus made a special point of the words "I am" (instead of saying "I was" or "I had been"). The Lord Jesus argued from this that God is the God of the living. He is not the God of the dead. And He was saying that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are still alive – though their bodies have long since turned to dust here on earth.

And then there’s the thing of God’s love. The Bible also says that we humans know about love because God first loved. God's love for us shows us what love really is.

So we also know that whoever and whatever we have learned to love and care for was first loved by God Himself. Whatever love we are willing to give to any living thing is but a dark shadow compared to the great and eternal love that God has.

Sometimes we wonder when we see small animals killed by an accident, a sickness, or even by a deliberate act. We see their small bodies and we wonder why God allows such things to happen. Why must defenseless things suffer and die? But we need to remember that this planet is not all there is. And life on this planet is not all there is to living.

The innocent creatures that pass on from this place of mortal life have simply returned to the One who gave them life and breath in the first place. And that is the same place I hope to one day be, and that is the place that every Christian believer on the earth hopes one day to be. God calls to Himself all the things He loves.

Jim