Pet Heaven?

   We lost our dog this past week, a beagle, who had shared our lives for the last eighteen years.  He is much missed.  And this raises a question that is often asked:  Will our pets be in Heaven?
   It is a natural enough question, given the reciprocated love that can exist between an animal and ourselves.  As one French writer put it, "Who knows, when I am playing with my cat, if my cat is not really playing with me?"


   The Book of Jonah sheds some light on God's relationship with the animal creation.  First, Jonah tells us:
   "God appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. " Ch.1, vs. 17.
Having what we might justly call an insiders view of the situation, Jonah had three days to consider the meaning of this unforgettable event.  Apart from the question of historical verisimilitude--and there are several stories from the Nantucket whalers of sailors being recovered after being accidently swallowed by these gigantic mammals--this great fish was clearly in the right place at the right time, and properly equipped to scoop up the reluctant prophet, and take him in the direction he needed to go.
 
   Secondly, we are told:
   "God appointed a worm . . .  " Ch. 4, vs. 7.
Having fulfilled his mission, announcing the impending doom of the great Assyrian city, Jonah waited to see the results.  As the sun rose, so did his temper, convinced that God would spare the city and spoil the purpose of his trip.  Until, that is, He caused a large plant, (the Hebrew word suggests a castor oil plant,) to spring up overnight and over shade him, helping him keep cool. Then God appointed a worm to consume the root of the plant, which withered as fast as it grew, and prepared to teach the angry prophet a lesson.


   Thirdly, by way of instruction to this overheated Hebrew, God asked him:
   "Do you do well to be angry?"  You feel sorry for the plant, which you did nothing to cause to grow in the first place. . .   "Should I not pity that great city Nineveh, with more than one hundred and twenty thousand people who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?"


   Does not God have compassion on all creatures, great and small--fish, worms, cattle, humanity?
   Is there heaven for pets?


   What do you think?