God's Creatures

“And God saw that it was good.” Those words, found in Genesis 1:25, immediately follow the part of the creation narrative where God has created “living creatures,” and immediately precede “let us make man in our image.” Once humans are in place, the story of creation tells us that God “saw all that he had made and it was very good.” 

The whole biblical narrative – from creation to renewal and restoration – is deeply rooted in the idea that God declared what He made (how He made it isn’t revealed so we shouldn’t worry about that too much!) to be “very good.” For believers, God’s authority to declare right from wrong is rooted in the idea that “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” (Psalm 24:1)

It is also true for people who claim to believe that Scripture is the trustworthy record of God’s self-disclosure that we are called to recognize that God called His creation “very good” and that we are His partners in renewing and restoring His good creation to its intended purposes. It is odd that Christians aren’t the leading voices in our world when it comes to caring for “the earth that is the Lord’s.”

I probably didn’t think so at the time, but I’ve come to understand that growing up a “farm boy” had a huge, positive impact on who I am and how I view God’s creation. Plants fascinate me. Who could imagine that you can take a little seed that still has little stubbles of something on it, plant it in the earth, and by the end of its growth cycle, it is covered with cotton – the most natural of fabrics? At one time, those massive oak trees, probably over a hundred years old now, that are in my yard were once tiny little acorns. The earth is a fascinating place it we “stop and smell the roses.”

Growing up, I was surrounded by “living creatures.” I’m talking about creatures like cows, horses, pigs, chickens, dogs, and cats. All the cows on my grandfather’s dairy farm had names and I knew every one of them by name. The dog that I remember best was a boxer named Johnny. Johnny thought my siblings and I needed protection from everyone – including my parents. I can remember more than one occasion where Johnny got between me and my mother, who had a switch from the peach tree that sometimes was her preferred method of getting my attention. (I’m not suggesting I didn’t deserve what my mother was planning to do, or that my mother was abusive, but just that Johnny was a protector.)

I was thrilled when my oldest daughter, Sarah, decided that she wanted her first dog to be a boxer! It brought back all sorts of wonderful memories about Johnny. So my “Dad ran into Santa Claus” gift for Sarah a while back was a boxer puppy. Sarah named her Laila and she quickly became a part of our family. Sarah lived with us a few months between the end of her apartment lease and the completion of her house – and Vicki and I got to share life with Laila while she was a puppy. If Sarah went out of town, we were trusted to “grand dog sit” and enjoy Laila’s company. Whenever Sarah came to see us, she brought Laila with her and I would often suggest that Laila wanted to spend the night. 

I’ve even been accused of giving Laila scraps from my plate – especially if the meat was pork, which seemed to be Laila’s favorite. I’m not admitting that I was guilty, just saying I was accused!

Laila lost a battle with lymphoma back in February. I really do understand that she was, in the words of some, “a dog, not a person.” But she was one of God’s “living creatures” and He called that part of creation “good.” If God made dogs to be companions, protectors, friends, and company to humans, then I have to say that Laila did a better job of achieving God’s “intended purpose at creation” than most humans I know, including myself, do. 

Caring for God’s creation – the earth itself, the living creatures, and humans – is risky business. But if I understand correctly, Jesus used “stories about creation” as the basis for much of what He taught. Just think about how many of His stories involve agriculture. Psalm 19 begins with a reminder that creation declares the glory of God, and in Romans 1, Paul declares that we can learn about God’s “eternal power and divine nature” from the world in which God has placed us.  Romans 8 anticipates a day when “creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.”

All of this to simply say to those who might read it that we ought to take good care of God’s “very good creation.” And that includes his “good living creatures.” And we ought to be thankful when our paths cross with one like Laila (or several other dogs I know!).  It certainly is okay to own up to the fact that losing a living creature like Laila breaks our hearts!

I hope decades down the road when Sarah is my age, she will remember what a protector Laila was just like I remember Johnny. I certainly don’t know how God will ultimately work out this renewing and restoring idea that permeates His self-disclosure, but I can’t imagine that it won’t include creatures like Laila, or Johnny, or Jasmine, or Bear, or Willow, or Matilda Jane – just a few of the dogs I’ve known. Shoot – I’m looking forward to seeing Themesong, the dairy cow my grandfather let me name the week of Vacation Bible School and I had learned the “theme song” for the week and thought that dairy cow needed that as her name!

God was right. Creation is “very good.”