Will we see our pets in Heaven?
If you are among the many people who have a pet or have had one in the past you know they can bring a lot of love and joy into your home and in the life of your family. They are God’s blessing to us for a season and when that season is over it can be a painful time in our life and sometimes that grief over their lost can lead us to wonder,..“will I see my pet again in Heaven? Next to seeing God and loved ones in heaven that have passed away, seeing that pet you loved just like another family member, is a thought millions of people have wondered about, and understandably so. That was your buddy or your little girl who wanted nothing more than just to be around you. So, when you are faced with that very painful decision to put them down because of an illness or old age it can be very hard on us to see them slowly exit this life. Only people that have gone through that experience can really know what a difficult time it is to have to get through. My heart goes out to everyone who has gone through that experience and those of you who are presently going through that experience.
Having gone through that two times in my own life, I certainly have thought about that question. Is seeing my pet again something that is possible with God? It is from that standpoint, that I want to address this question. Is this a possibility with God? Does God say anything about the matter in the Scriptures? Over my years of walking with God the Lord has taught me a very important lesson and that is this,..”if God hasn’t spoken on a matter then I can’t honestly speak as if I am speaking for Him on that matter because I don’t know the mind of God or the thoughts of God on the matter. Having said that, I have found that even some of the great preachers of our time, people who truly love God have very different opinions on this subject. Therefore, I want to be clear, right up front before I say anything else. What I am saying here is my own opinion, based on the conclusion I have come to having looked at what the Scriptures tell me about the unlimited power and might of the Almighty God who created us and the incomprehensible love He has for us. God alone has the ultimate answers on this subject. That said, I want to just look at what a few Scriptures have to say about the presence of animals.
The Bible tells us in Genesis, chapter one that in the very beginning of Creation, God created animals. They existed before sin and death ever entered the world through Adam’s sin, (Romans 5:12) says,.
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.
Every one of us came from Adam and Eve and what we all inherited from them once they sinned was a sin nature that causes every one of us by our very nature to want to live life free and independent of the God who created us. Belove that is sin,.. and therefore, every one of us has sinned against God. That is the testimony of God Himself about all of us, in the Scriptures,…
“For there is not a just man on earth who does good, And does not sin…(Ecclesiastes 7:20)
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us… If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.…(1 John 1:8,10)
“There is none righteous, no, not one…….( Romans 3:10 )
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…. (Romans 3:23)
However, before we all became sinners through inheriting Adam’s sin nature, the world was in the perfect state God created it to be in. Paradise was here on Earth and animals existed in that perfect world God created, and God,. according to the Scriptures,.. was well pleased with all He done in the six days of Creation as He looked on it all. That is what the Bible tell us in Genesis, chapter one. This was a world in which Adam and Eve could have lived in eternally had they not chosen to sin, and there would have been animals living right along with them. So, we know it was God’s original intention to have animals on earth along with Adam and Eve. Then when Adam and Eve sinned, death entered into the world (Genesis 3),… and even though death entered the world through their sin, it still pleased God to have animals on this earth,.. along with Adam and Eve even though both they would eventually die now because of their sin.
Then we know from Genesis, chapter 6 that God bought a worldwide flood in the days of Noah that left only eight people alive on the whole earth. Imagine that a minute. Only eight people alive on the whole planet. We also know the before God bought that flood on the earth, God had Noah build an Ark and God sent two of every type of animal He had created into the Ark so they would be keep alive with Noah after the flood. It pleased God to still have animals on the earth after the flood along with man. Why? Because that was God’s original design, a design God says was very good, and it continues to be God’s design even as we,..according to the Scriptures, look for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ to this earth one day to rule on this earth 1000 years.
That then, leads me to another passage that comes to mind as I think about all this. That is Isaiah 11, where the Scriptures tell us that animals will exist on this earth during the Millennium. The Millennium is that future 1000-year reign of the Lord Jesus Christ on this earth. It will be a time when the savage nature of beast will be taken away. This will be a supernatural act of God upon the animal world and Isaiah tells us that animals will be right there, where God is on this earth on God’s holy mountain,…
“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)
So then, we saw that animals were on the earth in the garden of Eden at the creation of the world, when the garden of Eden was here on earth before man fell into sin. There were animals preserved by God in Noah’s day to live on this earth after the flood. Obviously, they exist now right alone with man in man’s fallen state, though both die now. Then we also saw in (Isaiah 11:6-9), that animals will exist on the earth during the future 1000-year reign of the Lord Jesus Christ on this earth.
So then, when I think about all that, and particularly what God did at the creation of the world,.. what that leads me to understand about the God who created us on that sixth day of Creation is this,.. when God envisioned what a perfect world would look like from His view,..it was a world that has man, made in the image of God in it, and animals existing in it along with man. I say that because that’s is what God did in the beginning when He created this world,.. and when God finished with all He created in those six days, the Bible says God looked upon all He created, and God said it was very good (Genesis 1:31). Since I know that’s how God felt as He looked at all He created, it just seems reasonable then for me to believe that animals will also exist in some form when God, according to His promise, creates a New Heaven and a New Earth…(2 Peter 3:13).
The last book in the bible, Revelation, chapter 5, verses 11-13,.. the apostle John tell us of this heavenly scene God showed him,.. in which there are living creatures, no doubt in angelic form,…
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)
I point to this passage to say this,..We are talking about the Most High God here, who can cause every living creature He created to praise Him. Let me say this so there’s no misunderstand of what I am saying here. I am not saying, when a pet dies,… that pet goes to heaven. I can’t point to anything specifically in the Scriptures to clearly support something like that anymore than anybody else can. So far as I can see, when they die, they simply cease to exist. Neither when I refer to a pet, am I referring to any and everything people have chosen to call a pet that God never intended to be a pet. However, what I am ever mindful of about God is this,.. unless God says something is impossible, or God makes one of those “there will be no more” statements that God makes about things in the book of Revelation and other places in prophetic Old Testament books, I without any doubt whatsoever,.. believe something like seeing a pet again, is possible with God,.. if our Almighty Creator God chooses to make that happen,… to give fullness of joy to those who have become His children through faith in His Son Jesus Christ, whom God loves immensely and eternally. I believe God is Almighty and because I believe that, I believe God is able,.. and it is from that perspective, that I am writing all this. When I talk about God I am not merely talking about a God I know,. only as Savior and Lord,.. but also as the Creator and Sustainer of everything that exist in Heaven and on the Earth. I am talking about a God who power is so great that He simply spoke, and they were created. The Psalmist speaking about the awesome power of God in Psalm 33 says this,
By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast… (Psalms 33:6-9)
Anybody that can do all that by just speaking as far as I concerned, there is nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing that is too hard for Him that He wills to do. Listen to what the Lord ask Jeremiah His prophet…
Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me? ….(Jeremiah 32:26-27)
What God wanted Jeremiah to know here is He is not just the Lord, but that He is God Almighty who can do exceeding and abundantly above all you can ask or think. Neither Jeremiah’s mind, nor your mind, or my mind, can conceive the depths of His great power. This very same God who spoke at Creation and formed animals out of the dust of the ground,.. is the same God that is able to speak again and cause a pet to live again if He so chooses to do so. What we are talking about here is really a small thing with God. The life in them came from God and the life in them returns to God who gave it…and if God chooses to do so,.. He can simply speak and cause that pet to live again. And so here’s my own answer to the question God asked Jeremiah that we just looked at,.. “Lord, there is not anything too hard for you. You are God Almighty, who calls those things which are not,. as though they are…(Romans 4:17).
The angel Gabriel, was sent by God to tell the virgin Mary that she was going to have a baby without ever knowing a man, for “with God nothing shall be impossible” the angel Gabriel said in (Luke 1:37). John the Baptist gave a startling statement to some religious leaders of his day when he said to them that, “God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.. (Matthew 3:9). John the Baptist believed that God didn’t even have to use the dust to create man like He did in the beginning to create people. He believed that “God is able”. Even the devil, who is a fallen angel understands that God is able to do the impossible. We know that because he says to Jesus, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”..(Matthew 4:3). He called on Jesus to do that because he knew Jesus, being God in human flesh, is able. As the children of Israel journey through the dessert wilderness on their way to the promise land, the Scriptures tell us in (Exodus 17:1-7) that God bought water out of a solid rock for them to drink in the wilderness. So, here ‘s the Most High God, who can take a rock and bring water from it, or as John the Baptist said, raise up children unto Abraham from it, or even turn it into bread as the devil tried to get Jesus to do. Belove, we at times focus so much on God as Savior and Lord,.. that we lose sight of the fact that He is also the Most High God of all Creation and Sustainer of all things, who can do anything He chooses to do, with anything He created,.. unless He Himself has specifically said He would not do it, and He doesn’t need any raw materials to do those things.
So then, the idea that a pet can’t live again, not even by a gracious act of the Almighty God, that’s a foreign idea to me as I look at the greatness of God and reflect on His unlimited power. I most certainly believe that God would make something like that happen for the love and fullness of joy of His children, who ask Him. I would never say what God won’t do for His children, if God hasn’t said it. I simply don’t see anywhere in the Scriptures,.. that God said He can’t make that happen. Just as we love our children and give good things to them, God loves His children and as their God, He is able to do exceeding and abundantly above all they can ask or think…(Ephesians 3:20).
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,.. how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! …..(Matthew 7:11)
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?…..( Romans 8:32)
Friend, God longs for you to live eternally with Him in that glorious heaven city He has prepared for you when your time is up here on this earth. It is there that you will be able to talk with God for all eternity about those things that went on in your life that you didn’t understand while you were here on this earth. The only way God says you can be sure that will happen when you breath your last breath is for you to receive His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. God may have already spoken to you in the past about your eternal destiny and this appeal to you right now may be God one more time confirming that it is truly Him speaking to you in your heart. If so, I want to urge you to the “Encouragement” tab on the “Home” page and look for the “Prayers page” to see how you can pray to receive the Lord Jesus Christ into your life and know for sure that Heaven will be your eternal home as one of His children. Then you will know personally what the God who loves you will do for you.