What can we learn about God from animals? Dandi Daley Mackall shares her discoveries.
Elisa
Animals Can Help Us Know Jesus
By Dandi Daley Mackall
I grew up in a small Missouri town in the last house within “town limits,” an area where bunnies, squirrels, raccoons, and flocks of birds—along with a few snakes, coyotes, and foxes—called home. My parents’ first children were dogs, and when I came along, my first word was “Susie,” our loving Dalmatian.
I didn’t really know God yet, but I believed God created all the animals. And in spite of myself, I learned about the Creator by loving his creatures. Our dogs loved me unconditionally, whether I remembered to feed them or not. Susie forgave me when I pulled her ears, and she always greeted me as if I’d been gone for months. Did God make Susie to let me glimpse his own love for me?
We cared for a host of stray cats with multiple litters of kittens to cuddle. I learned to be gentle if I wanted a tame cat of my own. Each morning I listened for chickadees, cardinals, and mourning doves, feeling something a lot like praise.
In college I came to Christ, finally understanding his grace, forgiveness, kindness, love, sacrifice, and power. Since then, I’ve imagined the Three-in-One—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—delighting in each creature, laughing at the giraffe’s neck and knowing this animal would need to reach the leaves on a tree. Surely God placed a stubborn nature into donkeys, a proud spirit into horses, and a ferocious nature into lions, bears, hyenas, and wolves. I can picture Adam naming gnats and bats, elephants and cockroaches.
Only recently, though, have I gone deeper, connecting the creation of animals to God’s plan of salvation. God created a giant fish to swallow Jonah and help turn Jonah’s heart to obey his Creator after three days inside that fish. Was Jesus planning this as a hint of his own death and resurrection after three days?
God created ravens, knowing that in the future, a persecuted prophet named Elijah would be hiding out in a cave, close to starving. The Lord chose ravens to bring food to sustain the prophet and to illustrate the Lord’s provision: “Drink from the brook and eat what the ravens bring you, for I have commanded them to bring you food” (1 Kings 17:4).
If fierce lions hadn’t been created, would we understand Daniel in the lions’ den? Or the Bible’s description of Jesus as “the Lion of Judah”? Would we be amazed at the thought of a new heaven and earth where lions and lambs will live together in peace?
Oxen, lambs, and doves served as sacrifices in the Temple of Jerusalem. The annual reminder of the need to have sin paid for on the Day of Atonement gave a picture of God’s ultimate plan of salvation: one goat carrying the sins of the people was sent into the wilderness, while a second goat was sacrificed to God (see Leviticus 16:7-10). Was that why goats were part of Creation?
From the beginning, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit knew what role animals would play in the life of Jesus on earth. Jesus understood that he would need a donkey to ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. He planned all along to return to earth on a magnificent horse in the end times: “Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True” (Revelation 19:11). Jesus knew that he would use sparrows to help us stop worrying about the future: “So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows” (Matthew 10:31).
My holiday excitement grows with every new thought of Jesus at Creation, fully aware of his plans for each creature’s role in leading us to salvation in Jesus Christ alone. It all comes together at Christmas, God’s plan of Creation being fulfilled among sheep and donkeys, cows and horses, and camels setting out with wise men to celebrate the King of kings, born to set us free. Each Christmas can get better and better as we imagine the journey from Creation to the stable and maybe imagine ourselves looking on with the animals, astounded at what God has done.
For all the animals of the forest are mine,
and I own the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know every bird on the mountains,
and all the animals of the field are mine.
Psalm 50:10-11
Dandi Daley Mackall is the award-winning author of over 500 books for children and adults. Her two newest titles celebrate the holidays: Christmas in the Barnyard (Tyndale Kids) and Easter in the Barnyard (Tyndale Kids, February 2025). She visits countless schools, conducts writing assemblies and workshops across the United States, and presents keynote addresses at conferences and young author events. She is also a frequent guest on radio talk shows and has made dozens of appearances on TV. She has won several awards for her writing, including the Helen Keating Ott Award for Contributions to Children’s Literature, and is a two-time Mom’s Choice Award winner. Dandi writes from rural Ohio, where she lives with her husband, Joe, their three children, and their horses, dogs, and cats. Visit her at dandibooks.com.
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