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Learning from a Dog Named Beau! (Are There Animals in Heaven?)

Our dear friends Renny and Ronnie Severance experienced the great loss of their dog named Beau. He was a true family member and companion. Denise, my wife and I often saw Beau as we visited in their home. We are deeply saddened to hear of the death of Beau. Our friends are grieving and I felt compelled to write this article and dedicate it as a memorial for ‘a dog named Beau’. Beau is the inspiration for these words.

This article is personally for Renny and Ronnie and all other animal lovers on earth.
I must use Denise and our dog HRH Windsor for these illustrations.
Every morning when we wake Windsor is waiting beside the bed for us. He is smiling and waging his tail and totally excited to see us.How thrilling it would be should every marriage partner and family member be so excited to see each other at the dawn of a new day! When we leave him in the house while we are gone for a few hours, oh the joy and thrill he has to see us upon our return, leaping up and down in rapture, so excited he cannot contain himself! Out of breath he is licking and it seems there is nothing more thrilling in all the world than to see us!

What a marriage it would be should the person at home greet their hard working partner with such happiness and excitement! Oh how blessed would that home be.

Our little Windsor’s entire life wants to ‘be with us’ and ‘play with us’ and ‘please us’. He is not preoccupied with other things. He has time for us! Ha! As a matter of fact we are his greatest pleasure. How much we need to learn to care that way about each other. When I walk home or to the office with Windsor he is always running ahead but at every decision point of direction he looks back at me to see which way I am about to go. He wants to go with me. He wants to do my will. My will is his pleasure.

How much we need to learn to love and care for God in the same way?

Our loving Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and oh how we should seek His pleasure. Our desire should be to please our God and go in His direction. Windsor can be sleeping but when you say his name he looks up and comes over to see what is happening.

Blessed is the person that is so attuned to the Spirit of God that when God speaks we are eager to hear and respond?
Also how many wives would love to have a husband that would respond that way! Ha!

Beau and Windsor both love tickles. Over they flop and roll over for some special attention. I think we are a bit the same. We need to care for each other with little bits of acts of kindness and love and attention.
I think God sometimes is more interested in the attention we show by praying than the actual request.
I could go on and on but I know you want me to get to the question many have as to whether animals are in heaven. OK

My dog Maxie who was my main friend during my childhood on a farm in Louisiana will surely be in heaven! Along with my parrot ‘El Salvador del Mundo’ and other companions on my journey of life including my childhood cow ‘Nova Scotia’.
If you have never known the love of a pet or been loved by one you then have missed a treasure. The loss can be as painful as the loss of friends or family members.

Now for a look at the Bible:
I think I will just give some scripture and let you hear from God in His Word.

Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth. “So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:20-25 in the Holy Bible

Before the fall of the human race into sin God had Adam and Eve in perfect harmony with all the other created creatures of God. And God saw that it was ‘Good’.
Surely it will be the same at the end when all is restored and perfected again through Christ Jesus.
Now think of that Glorious Day of the Lord to come and how it is described in these words:

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole,
And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea. Isaiah 11:6-9 in the Holy Bible

The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, The lion shall eat straw like the ox, And dust shall be the serpent’s food.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,” Says the LORD. Isaiah 65:25 in the Holy Bible

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice:
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!” And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: “Blessing and honor and glory and power
Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!” Revelation 5:11-13 in the Holy Bible

As you read this entire chapter you see Jesus identifying himself as a Lamb that was slain (on the cross) Even in Heaven Jesus identifies with the animal kingdom that He made.

Second, look at all the creation of God praising Jesus!
All in heaven, And on earth, And under the earth, And such as are in the sea!

Look at the Greek word used here for creature:
ktisma (ktis’-mah); from NT:2936; an original formation (concretely), i.e. product (created thing):
Strong’s Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary.
In heaven every ‘created thing’ on this new earth and heaven is alive and praising Jesus! Glory. I could go on into many other scriptures in Revelation that show how even in heaven God is referring to animals. You may want to take special note of chapter 4.

In the famous Psalms 23, God is referred to as the Shepherd and we are His sheep!

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever. Psalms 23 in the Holy Bible

Now consider the Words of Jesus along the same line as He refers to Himself as the Good Shepherd and we are His sheep. Jesus used the sheep and Shepherd as He opened His very heart to show His love for us. Surely His touching love for sheep will not end with this earth because we saw that in the passage above He was shown as a Lamb that was slain for our sins even in Heaven.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things, which He spoke to them.

Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
John 10:1-16 in the Holy Bible

Oh how touching those words and we can still feel the passion of Jesus as He says these words:

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.
Luke 15:4-7 in the Holy Bible

Here you can see the concern of Jesus for birds and surely He cares for other animals too as well of course He cares for you.
Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Matthew 6:26-27 in the Holy Bible

Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?
Luke 12:23-25 in the Holy Bible

Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Matthew 10:28-31

Here we see God caring for the birds, feeding and clothing them. Jesus even says that He even know the death of every sparrow!

Oh, dear Ronnie and Renny we rest Beau in the safe and sure loving Hands of Jesus. After looking at the above scriptures and many more I conclude that there are animals in Heaven. I am confident that Beau is romping around glory and praising God with the lions and the bears and the lambs.
May we be inspired to live our lives with such passion for each other and for God.
I have wanted to write about this subject for years but never took the time till Beau moved me to action.
I pray many of you will be blessed and find comfort in this article.
I also pray for the hurt and suffering you have experienced in the loss of your pet.
God bless you and all those in the animal kingdom.

I have borrowed the use of animal kingdom from Doris my dear friend in Los Angeles. When she e-mails me she always signs it ‘Doris and the animal kingdom’. She has so many pets. I love it.

“Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!’
Psalms 150:6 in the Holy Bible

Pilgrim followers of Jesus, (and a pet lover of all kinds)

Arthur and Denise Blessitt
Luke 18:1