Separating animals from humans

Humans enjoy great privilege over the rest of the animal kingdom

My daughter's dog, Bella, thinks that vacation at grandma's place includes a walk each morning.

At 6:30am she flew onto the bed between my husband and myself.

Now with a walker I manage well as long as I hold on tight for sudden pulls on the lead attached to one of the handles of my walker.

About 45 minutes later I have released her to roam freely in my back yard while I rest on the walker and admire and listen to all the bird life. The day is waking up.

People are leaving for work and the magpies' tunes are wonderful to hear. Even the kookaburras do not seem to have annoying Noisy Miners pestering them at that time of the day.

I have just been reading "Do animals have spirits ("Creation", 08/08/20)?" God is glorified by birdsong and whale song, but the birds and whales are acting out of instinct.

And when a gorilla infant dies, its mother displays mourning behaviour, guarding the corpse from predators while displaying all the hormonal changes a mourning human would experience; but probably with no true understanding of what death is.

Yes, animals are soul-like and spirit-like (see Nephesh chayyah) but without the ability to relate directly with God. Humans can because we are made in the image of God.

So, we can worship God, place faith in Christ, and be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. An animal cannot.

So humans have great privileges compared to animals but we also face greater judgement.

One such privilege is that we can kill animals for food but if an animal killed a human under Old Testament law it had to be killed (Exodus 21:28), but this was not the death penalty but rather because it was a dangerous animal.

Glenda Carroll, Bundamba