God’s Thumbprint

Is the attribute of kindness limited solely to human beings? I'm not a pet owner, but I imagine a loud chorus of "no way" would arise from pet owners worldwide in answer to that question. How, then, I would ask, did that behavior come to be present in non-humans? Perhaps domesticated animals learn to act kindly from observing their human masters (companions), simply aping human kindness or reciprocating the kindness shown to them.

But, how does that explain the kindly acts observed in wild animals? I have read or heard of dolphins rescuing or helping people lost at sea. Wild elephants have been observed showing concern or respect when a person or another elephant dies. Koko, the lowland female gorilla that was taught sign language, cared for pet kittens much like a human would. One particularly interesting case I watched on AETN involved a cub-less lioness attaching herself to a mother lioness and her cubs during a drought and severe food shortage. She stayed with the cubs so their mother could range long distances in search of food. She was so devoted to the cubs that she would not leave them often enough to feed herself and eventually died from starvation.

Indeed, how to explain such behavior other than by a spark of divine will that still remains even in the wild creatures of this planet: a thumbprint, if you will, of their Creator who exemplified kindness in the person of Jesus Christ.

It is not the heavens only that reveal God’s glory. Consider Job's reply to his friend, Zophar: "But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will teach you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind." Job 12: 7-10 (NIV)