PETs ARE A GIFT OF GOD's DIVINE LOVE
THE UNCONDITIONAL LOVE OF A PET
IS PART OF GOD's DIVINE PLAN
Throughout our lives, we have all heard a tremendous amount about unconditional love.
We hold it as the ultimate form of love. We feel it for our children, and for many of us,
we feel it for our parents. But even those bonds can be torn within the realm of human
experience, for we easily become victims of hurt feelings or the backlash of our own words
towards others. Most of us are fortunate to have had loving families and have been the
recipient of the true unconditional love from our parents. And every parent knows the
unconditional love for a child, even if the child does not return the love.
Sadly, many people have never known what it feels like to share true unconditional love
between other human beings. Many have become disillusioned at what they thought
was unconditional love, only to find in the end that there were indeed conditions in place
that were not met. In fact, except in the case of parent's instant and lasting unconditional
love for their child, nearly all human relationships begins with conditions in place before we
trust other human beings with our hearts. The unconditional love of adults for other adults
generally is a gift of the heart that is opened and offered over time as trust, respect and
character are observed and friendship develops.
So where is the unconditional love in this world that we hear about? We hear that
God loves us unconditionally, and yet we do not see it or feel it or receive it from most
of our human relationships. If one has never had children or did not grow up in a loving home,
they might never have experienced that instant and lasting love that is beyond conditions
and stands through all time.
Where do we find this love within our daily lives pouring from God's heart and falling
directly upon us in a personal way, through relationships of others in our lives? We truly
do know that God loves us. He provides many miracles in the lives of each of us and
we see His protection, His mercy, His grace, His guidance and we feel Him in our hearts.
And yet, because we are human, despite God's gentle hand upon our lives, we still reach
out to find expressions of His unconditional love through our interpersonal
relationships with others.
We need that living love to be expressed to us and from us in a reciprocal "real" relationship,
for God has created us as social human beings. We need the love of others in our lives
or we fall into depression and despair. it is a proven fact that those that have someone to love
live longer lives and remain healthier for a longer period of time. Having someone to care
for and having someone in our lives that cares for us in return is actually important for our
physical and mental health, as well as our longevity!
So where do we find this unconditional love within the expression of our interpersonal
relationships? Where do we find the ones that love us without conditions, who stand by
us no matter what is going on in our lives? Who loves us no matter how we look, no matter
what we weigh, no matter how many wrinkles we have or what our hair looks like? Who
thinks we are beautiful from the inside out because they do not care about physical appearance?
Who loves us when we come home from a bad day at work and is happy just to have us with
them even if we are in a horrible mood?
Who loves us the same and expresses that love without question? One of the most common
reasons that marriages break up between "soul mates" are financial problems. Who loves us
just the same even if we are unable to pay our bills, if we have found ourselves deeply in debt
or unable to balance a bank account? Who loves us the same whether we are meticulous
housekeepers or creatively messy slobs? Who stays with us and stands by us when we lose
our jobs, lose our health, lose our own dignity and self-respect, lose our financial stability or
our ability to function under such stresses? Who stands by us when we make poor decisions
or make mistakes that cost us through misjudgment or ignorance?
Who forgives us when we make mistakes, or worse yet, continually make the same mistakes?
Who stands with us without question even though we are so flawed in our humanness?
Who is glad to see us even when we are very late coming home? Do our human family
members jump up and greet us excitedly with smiles and jump for joy just for the mere
fact that we have walked through the door? Who loves us in such a way as this?
Where is this unconditional love to be found? We all know that except for most
parent-child relationships, most human love does indeed have its limitations
and conditions.
The ones that bring us this unconditional love are our pets. These are the ones that provide
us with God's Living Love and become our loyal companions, who stand by us through
thick and thin. These are the innocent hearts that are able to love us in the way that they
do because love is who they are. They accept us as God accepts us. They forgive our
shortcomings and mistakes. They don't care what we look like and see our hearts clearly as
if our bodies were transparent. This is how God sees us. He created our
bodies and knows its limitations, but He looks at our hearts. Animals bring us
unconditional love in a personal way so that we can feel that love of God
in our everyday lives.
This is especially important for those who are alone in this world, having lost their
human loved ones along the way or for those that are loners or for other reasons such
as physical disabilities remain cut off from their communities. Our pets are like little
droplets of God's love that have rained down from heaven into our lives, bringing us
tidings of great joy.
We hold unconditional love as the highest expression of love and we know intuitively
that it is divine in nature. And our pets bring us that in their innocence because that is the
only way they know how to love us. It takes a great deal of abuse, neglect or even
training to turn domesticated pets from naturally reaching out to a human being with their
open hearts. We find pets that have become dangerous or vicious, if it cannot be explained by
ill health or pain that the pet is suffering, we can generally trace such behaviors back
to mistreatment, abuse or neglect of the animal in the hands of people. It takes a lot to
turn pets away from their natural state, which is so accepting and
expressive of joy and love.
Unconditional love is what we seek as human beings. Our pets give us that, and nearly
always it comes right from the start. Unless an animal is in recovery in a rescued situation
or have been wild-caught, they stand ready and waiting with open hearts to love us.
They are God's innocent messengers of His ever-present grace and love. And through
our close relationships with these special little souls, we ourselves are brought to our
higher expressions of living spirit and grow in our own spiritual development. Through
the unconditional love of our pets, we learn what true loyalty is, what true acceptance is,
and what true companionship is. These are the spiritual gifts that our pets show us for
they are given these qualities from the Father and are born with the
natural ability to express them.
Unconditional love from our pets comes directly through the grace of God. When they
pass away, we miss them often more than we miss our human loved ones and often grieve
more deeply for their loss. Why? Because they loved us unconditionally and there is
perhaps no one on earth who imparted to us that highest form of love, that most spiritual
form of love, or perhaps called it up from within our own hearts, than our beloved pet.
They call US to love another in that divine, unconditional way.
For God is great and in His infinite wisdom, He knows that even when we are not
able to love our brethren of our human family, we are able to love His creatures because
they bring sweet messages of a love much greater than human love
- that love which is Divine.
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