Most of us credit instinct for an animal’s basic intelligence and ability to survive. We assume they are only ‘as smart as they need to be’.
In my experience, it appears God gives animals the ability and means to accomplish His will.
One day many years ago, my dad was saved by our family dog, a large German Shepherd. Dad was working near our big dump truck and ‘Brutus’ began barking frantically and grabbed Dad’s arm to try pulling him, as the truck was about to roll over him. Dad made it to safety just seconds before the truck would have rolled over him.
On another occasion, several years ago our daughters each had a horse ... 'Private Coin' and 'Pelican Beach' ... who were inseparable. Sadly, ‘Coin’ had an aneurysm in the field and died unexpectedly. For weeks, ‘Beach’ would stand at the spot where ‘Coin’ died and sway back and forth with his head hung low, visibly in mourning. One day, ‘Beach’ was so sad, he was laying down at the spot where ‘Coin’ passed and let me come sit and lay against his belly and snuggle with him. It was one of the most unique and touching animal moments I’ve ever experienced, being blessed to lay next to, cry and mourn with a horse. I’ll never forget it.
There are many touching stories of animals bringing joy to humans, ‘saving the day’ or even saving lives. The Bible is full of stories about animals too.
In Numbers 22:21-33, God uses his power through the encounter of Balaam with his donkey. The donkey saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way and the donkey moved aside. Balaam became angry because the donkey would not obey. However, the Angel of the Lord explained to Balaam the danger his donkey avoided and made a decision to get out of the way of the Angel, whom Balaam could not even see. It is an amazing read.
We have all seen animals use tools to get and/or eat food. They have the reasoning capacity to know that a tool will help them get food.
We have all seen animals run from danger. How does an animal know it’s in danger? It must understand something about life in order to seek to protect itself.
We credit human intelligence and reason (from God) for our avoidance of danger. Why would we not credit animals with reason when they do the same thing?
Of course, we should not disregard the role of an animal’s instinct, but we should not rule out the evidence that animals’ instincts are complemented by their ability to reason.
All said, God’s creatures are amazing. The intertwined purposes of human and critter life is often times overwhelming. But then, we serve an amazing God!
Related post: ‘God Communicates To Animals'
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