One day after school was out in the spring, Katie went to visit her aunt and uncle who lived on a farm. They had just gotten a lot of baby pigs. Katie decided her favorite piglet was the white one with some black markings on it. When it was time to go home, she had a box with two little piglets in it. One was her favorite white and black piglet and the other was a rust colored one.
Her father set up a low, electric fence to keep the two piglets near their nice new house. Katie washed and brushed the piglets often. She set a little stool in their play yard and sat and talked to her pets. They soon got to know her voice and would come when she called them. She found that they liked toys, because when she gave them a couple of balls, they tossed and shoved them around with their noses. One of the balls was a pigskin football, and she would warn the piglets, “That is what happens to little pigs that do not behave. . . . They are turned into pigskin footballs!”
Grandma and Grandpa lived just down the road from Katie’s house. One day some friends came to visit Grandma and Grandpa. They soon heard all about Katie’s piglets and wanted to go see them.
When Grandma called Katie on the phone to tell her they were coming to see her piglets, she quickly washed and brushed them and tied ribbons around their necks. They looked so clean and all dressed up.
By the time Grandma and Grandpa and their friends had finished dinner and walked over to see Katie’s piglets, those little pigs didn’t look quite the same. They had rolled in the mud where Katie had dumped their wash water and had gotten themselves and their pretty ribbons all muddy! The piglets didn’t know they had done anything wrong. They just snorted and sniffed and ran back and forth squealing when they saw Katie coming. They were so glad to see her, but Katie was very disappointed when she saw them. She got out her pig brush and started brushing the dried mud off them.
Will they always stay as cute little pigs? No. They will continue to eat and eat and grow and grow, until they weigh about 100 pounds. Then they will have to go back to Katie’s uncle who will keep them until they weigh about 220 pounds. Then he will take them to market and sell them there with his other grown-up pigs.
Katie knows all about this. Last year she raised 12 baby geese. They followed her everywhere and would even sit looking in the window, waiting for her to come outside. The pet geese finally had to go to market too.
You can tell that Katie is a very loving person and takes good care of animals. However, she knows that an animal does not have a spirit. She goes to Sunday school and has learned that the Bible says that God gave a soul and a spirit that exists forever only to people. “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:77And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7)).
Katie will be sorry to see her pet piglets go back to her uncle’s farm, and she was sad to see her geese leave last year too. But she knows she will probably have something else next year to love and care for. Maybe she will have some rabbits, or maybe a baby calf, or even a few baby goats. These creatures are of the earth and cannot go to heaven. Only people have souls that exist forever—either in heaven or in hell. When we wash our pets here on earth, they will get dirty again; it is their nature. But when we are washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ who died for us, we are washed clean of all our sins—past, present and future— forever! Then we are ready to live with the Lord Jesus in heaven for eternity.
ML-10/30/2016