Revelation 21:1. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared.
Have you ever wondered if there will be animals in Heaven? It’s a question that many Christians have asked. I believe that there will be animal sin Heaven, sort of.
Why do I say “sort of?” Because technically we don’t go to Heaven forever. What the Bible actually says is that there will one day be a new heaven (or sky) and a new earth (or land). Do you remember the very first verse in the Bible?
Genesis 1:1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The “heavens and the earth” is a way of saying God created everything physical. God created a physical planet full of water, land, plants, and, of course, animals. Lots and lots of animals. You might remember from Day 1 that the animals were called “living creatures” in Genesis 1. And all the living creatures that God created were called “good” by God. But you also probably remember that all the animals (and all of creation) has been broken by sin. What does that mean? It means that Earth and everything on it needs a re-do.
What Revelation 21:1 is telling us is that God is going to re-do his creation. He is going to give it all a re-boot. Kind of like when your computer is acting weird, so you restart it so that it will go back to working correctly. That is what God is going to do with the planet Earth. Jesus himself said that one day the Earth will be renewed or re-born.
So if God is going to restart the Earth like it was back in Genesis 1, shouldn’t we assume that there will be all kinds of animals on this new earth? I would think so, wouldn’t you? And who knows, maybe all the animals that have ever existed will be there too. The woolly mammoth. The dodo bird. The Tasmanian tiger. The quagga. Gigantopithecus. The passenger pigeon. Plesiosaur. The Pyrenean ibex. The auroch. The blue-buck. The saber-toothed cat. The gastric-brooding frog. The archaeopteryx. And many more.
What extinct animal do you hope to see on the new earth?
There are many reasons to look forward to Jesus’ second advent. Obviously, seeing Jesus himself will be the best part. But it will also be pretty cool to see what the new earth is like too. We not only have much to look forward to, but we can also work hard to protect all of God’s living creatures until Christ returns.
Questions: Do you hope Jesus comes back soon? What are you looking forward to the most when Jesus does return? How can you help to take care of God’s creatures this new year?
TLICfamily 