My dear child,
You have lost your beloved pet and your heart is aching. Your grief is real, and I do not take it lightly. Others have told you there is no biblical proof that animals have souls which makes your pain even worse. Your heart tells you there must be more but you don’t know what to think. Be encouraged; there is evidence in the Bible that you will see your pet in heaven.
Before the world was fractured by sin, animals lived in peace. They were not food
✽ and they were not hunted or feared. Animals did not even eat each other. Only the evil of humans brought an end to the Garden of Eden and death into the world. In the Garden of Eden, animals existed alongside mankind in harmony Could it be that this was a glimpse of eternity?
My servant Paul wrote, “Not all flesh is the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another, and fish another. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. … If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:39-44 BSB). This seems to say, fairly plainly, that animals have physical bodies, and that anything with a physical body also has a spiritual body which will be raised.
Consider Balaam’s donkey who saw the angel (Numbers 22:21-39). She carried not just a prophet upon her back, but spiritual understanding beyond Balaam’s. She spoke, revealing wisdom beyond her human companion. By her own will, she turned aside from destruction. By her own words, she confronted blindness.
I did not speak through her—I merely opened her mouth, and she cried out her own emotions, her own discernment. Her voice spoke out what he could not see, and through her obedience, My purpose was fulfilled. Does this not show sentience? A soul?