"God’s Love for Animals” | Rev. Vicki Harrison
At New Hope This Sunday
Kids stayed in the main service this morning — something New Hope does on fifth Sundays. Bobby Lain led worship, and the day before, the church had held its first Blessing of the Animals event, blessing 25 dogs and one cat and welcoming neighbors from the community. That Saturday moment flowed naturally into Pastor Vicki's message.
A few things on the horizon from this week's announcements:
Worship Night — Friday June 5, 7:30 PM, Logan Hall — A churchwide night of worship for all ages. No registration needed. Come and bring someone.
Iron Morning Breakfast — Saturday June 6 — Men's breakfast. Invite a friend or your son.
Starting Point — begins June 7 — New Hope's three-week series on community, spiritual gifts, and how to get plugged in.
VBS — June 15–19 — Kingdom Quest is two weeks out. Kids can still register and volunteers are still needed.
Recharge — Wednesdays — New summer cycle starting this week: Financial Peace University, a scripture series, First Place for Health, and more.
Wild, Wonderful, and Loved: What Animals Teach Us About God
What does a glass frog have to do with your faith?
More than you'd expect.
Pastor Vicki Harrison — an admitted animal person with four rescue dogs, one cat, and what she calls "the Harrison Nursing Home for Aging Animals" — takes a question she hears all the time and brings it straight to Scripture: What does God actually think about animals? What she finds there speaks to something much bigger than pets and wildlife. It speaks to you.
Three truths. Genesis, Psalms, and the words of Jesus.
Truth #1: God Created All the Animals, and God Cares for All the Animals
Start in Genesis 1:24–25 — the moment God speaks the animal kingdom into existence. The Hebrew word used here is bara. It means God takes nothing and makes something with his own hands. It's a word reserved for the most significant acts of creation — and it appears only three times in the creation account: when God makes the heavens and the earth, when he makes the animals, and when he makes humanity.
"So we know from the very get go," Pastor Vicki says, "the animals are special because God made them with his own hands."
That care shows up again at the flood. God doesn't let the animals bear the consequences of human sin — he puts them on the ark. And in Psalm 104, the picture is even more expansive: springs pour into ravines so wild donkeys can drink; birds nest in cedars God planted; wild goats have their mountain crags; lions roar for prey that God himself provides. "He created an earth where all of these things fit perfectly together," Vicki says, "demonstrating his glory, demonstrating how awesome he is."
Consider some of the creatures God made:
A glass frog — its skin completely see-through, organs visible, camouflaged so perfectly against forest leaves that predators can't see it. A whale shark — the largest fish on earth at 62 feet long, a gentle giant that eats only plankton. A platypus — a mammal that lays eggs and feeds its young through pores in its skin. And the blobfish — widely considered the ugliest animal alive. "It just looks like droopy Jello," Vicki says, "but it was created that way because it lives on the bottom of the ocean. God designed it just so that it would be perfectly suited to living way, way, way down on the bottom of the ocean."
Every one of them is exactly what God made it to be. Every one is evidence of a God who creates with intention and cares for what he creates.
Truth #2: God Created All the Animals with a Purpose, to Show His Glory
The Bible mentions more than 120 specific kinds of animals — sheep, horses, eagles, dogs, every kind of bird. Jesus is called the Lion of Judah. Animals in Scripture aren't background scenery. They're teachers.
Think about what a dog actually demonstrates. Unconditional love — coming back tail-wagging no matter what. Presence — not obsessing over yesterday or anxious about tomorrow, fully grounded in the here and now. Simplicity. Forgiveness. Companionship. "And of course, that's why we love them," Vicki says. "It's why we get so attached to them. And it's hard when they die, because we all seek that kind of love and companionship. We need it. We crave it."
What about the question almost everyone eventually asks: Will I see my pets in heaven? Scripture doesn't give us a tidy answer. John Wesley was convinced he'd see his horse. Martin Luther and C.S. Lewis both believed God's love and redemption extended to all of creation. Others land differently. "The bottom line is we just don't know," Vicki says. "And we just have to trust God on that one — knowing that our God is a God of love and a God who cares for animals."
Truth #3: Animals Teach Us About God's Incredible, Unconditional Love for Us
Jesus puts it plainly in Matthew 6:25–26:
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, or what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns. And yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
God provides for the birds. He designed the blobfish for the bottom of the ocean. He put two of every animal on an ark. And if that is how he attends to the creatures — how much more does he attend to you?
"He will always provide for you. He will never abandon you. He will never leave you hanging. You have a God who loves you and adores you so much so that he sent His Son to die on the cross for you. For you personally."
The glass frog, the whale shark, the platypus, the blobfish — they all point somewhere. They point to a Creator who makes things with purpose, tends to what he's made, and loves his people with a love that doesn't quit.
Pastor Vicki Harrison preaches at New Hope Church in Brandon, Florida. Watch this message and others at findnewhope.com/message-archive.
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