WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM ANIMALS?

"Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!"  So says Proverbs 6:6. And in Matthew 10:16 we read: “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves." I can tell you that we perceive amazing beauty when we sight a passing butterfly as it wafts pass us, just as we learn a lot about being bright, vigilant and alert when we take a look at most birds as they look right, left, up and down even when perched on a tree. Without the mosquitoes we probably will be dirtier than we are already but the fear of malaria compels some level of sanitation! One can go on. 

Animals being part of nature speak to the glory of the Almighty and show His numerous wondrous works just by being themselves. A very good friend of mine said recently that it is actually unfair to animals when we speak of a degenerate human and say that such a man acts like an animal. I agree completely with him because a man who puts himself on the same level with the animal acts wantonly, cannot claim innocence and this fact actually puts him below the animal simply because the animal acts according to the level it occupies in Creation and such man falls short of this!

In their answer to the question of whether animals really have a sixth sense, Readers Digest informs us that a box jellyfish has 24 eyes, an earthworm’s entire body is covered with taste receptors, a cockroach can detect movement 2,000 times the diameter of a hydrogen atom — and your dog’s sense of smell is up to 100,000 times greater than yours (some dogs have been known to smell human cancers). It’s safe to say that animals experience a much different world than we do.

And very importantly, paying attention to, and learning to understand animals may even save man sometimes from earthly dangers. Have you heard of animals leaving an area just before the occurrence of what we describe as natural disasters? When you inquire further perhaps you too will come to realise that apart from the enormous physical gifts mentioned earlier, animals have a similar origin as that of the servants of our Creator that work with Nature. When occurrences such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and floods are imminent, these servants warn and the animals more easily perceive these warnings and act accordingly. However, man runs into the danger and thereby suffers great harm or even perish.

We should therefore pay closer attention to animals and learn to understand them. We will then thankfully recognise that animals are our friends and form a useful link in the chain of helpers that always surround us!