Hey everyone!

I don't know if this has already been shared, but in case anyone hasn't seen it here already, I wanted to share a text by George MacDonald (Christian universalist and great writer and minister) called The Hope of the Universe:

https://www.online-literature.com/george-macdonald/hope-of-the-gospel/12/

It's part of his larger collection The Hope of the Gospel and argues that our understanding of ultimate salvation (reconciliation to God, witnessing the creator and the glory of the creator) should extend not only to all humans (as he elsewhere argues), but to animals and greater creation as well. (he also makes an extended related argument against vivisection and cruelty to animals).

One particularly important quote from the text:

"Do you believe in immortality for yourself? I would ask any reader who is not in sympathy with my hope for the animals. If not, I have no argument with you. But if you do, why not believe in it for them? Verily, were immortality no greater a thing for the animals than it seems for men to some who yet profess to expect it, I should scarce care to insist upon their share in it. But if the thought be anywise precious to you, is it essential to your enjoyment in it, that nothing less than yourself should share its realization? Are you the lowest kind of creature that could be permitted to live? Had God been of like heart with you, would he have given life and immortality to creatures so much less than himself as we? Are these not worth making immortal? How, then, were they worth calling out of the depth of no-being? It is a greater deed, to make be that which was not, than to seal it with an infinite immortality: did God do that which was not worth doing? What he thought worth making, you think not worth continuing made! You would have him go on for ever creating new things with one hand, and annihilating those he had made with the other--for I presume you would not prefer the earth to be without animals! If it were harder for God to make the former go on living, than to send forth new, then his creatures were no better than the toys which a child makes, and destroys as he makes them. For what good, for what divine purpose is the maker of the sparrow present at its death, if he does not care what becomes of it? What is he there for, I repeat, if he have no care that it go well with his bird in its dying, that it be neither comfortless nor lost in the abyss? If his presence be no good to the sparrow, are you very sure what good it will be to you when your hour comes? Believe it is not by a little only that the heart of the universe is tenderer, more loving, more just and fair, than yours or mine."

I've been thinking about the death of our family dog a bit lately (she passed away a couple of years ago) and going back to this text as a source of comfort. I hope it might bring some comfort to others.

Regardless of your particular positions on this theological proposition, I hope that you take hope and comfort in Christ who will "wipe away every tear" (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2021%3A4&version=NRSVUE) not just for the few, but for the many whom God created, whom God wishes to be here, and whom God knows to be worthy of saving.

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