“If there are no dogs in heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.” – Will Rogers
On earth, it is not uncommon to find that your pet is a lot easier to live with than people. You can fail at something miserably, have an awful day feeling like you are a crash test dummy over and over, and your dog still wags their tail and is guaranteed to be the only person who is incredibly excited to see you when you get home, no matter what you’ve done. For many folks, their pet makes life so memorable that they cannot think of forever without them.
There are at least 5 reasons in the Bible that we should expect to have pets in Heaven, if not your earthly pet.
- God is the Lord of both people and animals. In Psalm 50:10-11, God says, “every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.”
- God cares about your pet. Proverbs 12:10 (NLT) says, “The godly care for their animals, but the wicked are always cruel.”
- God spared humans and animals from the judgment in the Flood. In Genesis 6:19-20, animals were spared as not only did people get on the ark, so did animals, as God cares about sparing both.
- God’s Covenant with mankind extends to animals. The Noahic covenant is for people and animals. Genesis 9:9-17 says, “I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth…the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature…When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh….I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
- There will be pets in Heaven. Isaiah 11:6-8 says, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them….The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.” Yes, kids will have pet wolves, leopards, lions and cobras in Heaven with no risk of any harm.
In conclusion, there are four options for what pets we will have in Heaven:
- God will make new animals of the same kind we have on earth.
- As God restores and redeems all of creation, this will include bringing animals, including pets, into the New Earth.
- God could bring extinct animals back from earth into the New Earth so that rather than driving cars we ride dinosaurs for fun.
- God could make even more glorious and amazing new kinds of animals for the New Earth.
Which of these four options do you find most likely? Why?