TonioTimeDaily

Side note: My Grandma Clara is my guardian angel, I believe that loved ones who have transitioned on have their ways of sheltering us. I think they live both in Paradise and this life in a unique form of a hybrid, so they don't spend all of their time watching over us.  

My African spirituality, as I have said many times, is my honoring my ancestry and my Grandma Clara in all of my thoughts, emotions, words, and deeds as well as daily heart discussions for them, that's my form of spiritualism.

I also believe that decent people who committed suicide due to the mental anguish that they could not help are in Paradise. 

"How do we answer children when they ask: “Will I see my dog in heaven?” As I see it, this question is not only an urgent concern for the children. I believe that most adults also have a deep desire to know if, in the next life, we will see our pets and all the other lovely creatures alongside whom we now inhabit this planet.

I feel more comfortable, however, if we pose the question a little more broadly: Namely, does God’s plan of salvation include all creatures? In the reflections below, I think I have lined up a good bit of evidence—from Scripture, from the example of Saint Francis and from the teachings of the Church—which shows that God wishes other creatures besides humans to be included in the plan of salvation. Consider the following:

The creation story of Genesis suggests that God’s care and love extend to all creatures. Would not God’s very act of creating the earth, as well as the plants and animals, imply an unwritten covenant that the Creator will not suddenly stop loving or caring for them?

The story of Noah’s ark leaves little doubt in my mind that God wants all creatures to be saved, not just the humans. For me, the ark is a wonderful symbol of God’s desire to save the whole family of creation. The story suggests to me that it is not God’s plan to save humankind apart from the other creatures. We are all in the same boat, so to speak. As Saint Paul writes to the Romans (8:22), “All creation is groaning” for its liberation.

After the waters of the flood go away, God makes a covenant with all living creatures. The covenant is not simply between God and the humans, but also, as the Bible says, with “all the birds, and the various tame and wild animals….Never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood” (Genesis 9:10-11, italics added).

God’s putting a rainbow in the sky emphasizes the point one more time. God tells Noah: “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all mortal creatures that are on earth” (9:17). Isn’t it interesting that God takes much more care than we humans to include the animals and other creatures in the plan of salvation?"

--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/antonio-myers4/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/antonio-myers4/support