The Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Christ all things were created…
Colossians 1:15
He was with the wild animals…
Mark 1:13
After many months of diving deep into the Gospel of Matthew, in order to know Jesus again, as if for the first time, I finally opened myself to the Gospel of Mark during my daily devotional reading. It took three days to arrive at Mark 1:13; where I did not find anything new. I have long known that during the temptation story of Jesus, he was in the wilderness. The angels attended to his needs. The animals were his companions.
However, I found myself—given the things I care deeply about these days—asking a new question:
What can we know about the Christ by paying careful attention to his relationship to animals? And a follow up question; Given the relationship of Jesus to the animals and all of creation, how are we to love the animals and all of the creation?
I am pondering this question. What do you think?
Comments? We'd love to hear from you.