Animals and Children

I had cats before I had kids.  So, my kids have always had cats in their lives.  Even after I lost the first two cats (Gatzby the male and Asreal the female), we acquired two more.  My daughters are now on their own, at 23 and 21, but I still have the most recent cats, Jett (his full name is Jett Black, because he is a black cat, of course) and Squeaks (a female calico).

Kids, in general, love animals.  They love their own pets and love to visit farms and petting zoos and the big zoos and aquariums.

Bible stories have been written and told many, many times. But they have not been told from the animal’s point of view.  Noah has many animals in his story, Adam and Eve had a snake in their story and Daniel had lions.  Then, of course there is Jonah and the whale.

There are animals throughout the Bible.  What a perfect way to make each Bible story impactful to the children!  As I wrote the stories, I could hear them being read to the children and I could even picture them being acted out, as the children participated in each story.

Anyone who has kids knows that they love repetition.  They love to hear their favorite stories again and again.  Not only will they be able to picture the stories, they can picture themselves being part of each story as they act it out.  How exciting for the child, and the parent or teacher.

Not all of the animals in the stories will be kind to the characters.  The snake, in the story of Adam and Eve is sneaky, but the dove in the story of Noah’s Ark is helpful. 

I have even added a few animals that were not obvious in the Bible, because I wanted to include them in the stories.  ‘Animals of the Old Testament’ includes a cat that helps to find Moses in the river and Ruth has a donkey in her story. 

The most important element to these stories, I believe, is that each animal has a name.  The dove in the story of Noah’s ark is Miriam.  The cat that helps to find Moses is Khu.

It has been fun to assign animals and their names to the stories and I think the children will enjoy them.

I was recently asked about my relationship with Jesus.  I actually have to say that I don’t feel that I have one.  That isn’t to say that I don’t believe in Jesus, because I absolutely do.  As a matter of fact I cover the birth of Jesus in my second book ‘Animals of the New Testament.’

I will say, though, that I have a very strong relationship with God.  One of my earliest memories with my mother was making the beds in the house in the morning and then kneeling to say morning prayers.

Also related to prayers, I found myself in an interesting situation one evening.  I had worked for a doctor for a while between high school and post-secondary school.  Dr. Sullivan visited with me in Ottawa a little while after I moved from Pembroke.  After dinner, he gave me two choices.  One could attend an AA meeting or a prayer group meeting.  I had never been to either, but opted for the prayer group meeting as I was not really comfortable attending an AA meeting, never having been around anyone who might resemble and alcoholic.

It was a lovely meeting with this small group. They asked if I would like them to pray for me and never missing an opportunity to draw on others strengths, I agreed.  As one of the women walked behind me to place her hands on my head, she actually jumped back!  She told me that the Holy Spirit was very strong in me!

Since I was only about 21 at the time, I have to admit that this pronouncement was a bit scary, as I never felt any more special than anyone else. With that knowledge, I have always felt that there is more that I should be giving back to the world than I have been.

It has only taken about 30 years, but I now know that the talent that I need to share is writing.  Since I had taught Sunday school for four and five year olds, I thought that writing for young children would best use the writing talents I have.