Hope for Everyone by David Bell

Author:David Bell
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781803819730
Publisher: Grosvenor House Publishing
Published: 2024-09-03T12:24:28+00:00

Adilah: Animals and Laughter

The scream echoed around the cabins, and everyone stopped what they were doing.

Adilah came running from the trees, fear on her face.

“What’s the matter?” called Harmony, brushing dirt from her hands and standing upright in the vegetable patch.

“Snake!” yelled Adilah.

Harmony’s heart leapt into her mouth for a split second.

“Wait, Adilah! Wait!”

Adilah turned, continuing to stamp her feet and waving her hands as though trying to shake off an invisible assailant.

Harmony approached her with hands held out. She very gently touched Adilah’s elbows, bringing her to a breathless pause.

“Adilah, no animal will attack you here. They no longer need to kill other things in order to eat and protect themselves. It’s ok… It’s ok.”

Adilah looked at Harmony, wide-eyed.

“It was a big one!”

Harmony led Adilah to her cabin, where she was soon sunk deep in her favourite armchair, gratefully sipping a hot cup of cocoa. “I have a question, Harmony, but it’s ok if you don’t know the answer.”

“Sure thing, honey. Ask away,” said Harmony, who was sitting next to her, sewing a colourful quilt.

“Animals. Why was it that so many animals would kill and eat one another in the Previous Age? And some would kill humans too. Why was nature so violent if God made it all and God is love?”

“Gosh, that’s a big one, Addy! I’ll try and answer from what I’ve understood so far. Basically, everything in the Previous Age was designed to ensure the increase of sentient beings, as Papa wants to have a relationship with as wide a variety of beings as possible. However, it’s possible for a species to multiply beyond the ability of its habitat to support it, and that’s why he created predators to keep the balance of nature in place. He knew that he would resurrect the essence in each sentient creature, so that’s why he accepted this design compromise. Things are different on the New Earth, as populations don’t increase through reproduction any more, only resurrection. So God can ensure that the essential balance required in each ecosystem here is maintained, without the design compromise of animals killing each other.”

“Where I come from, we had to be so careful. Snakes, scorpions, spiders – they could all kill you.”

“Wow, yes. I remember reading about those. America had some dangerous wildlife too, but not as much as Africa. I believe that each species was designed to fit within its local ecosystem, where it was provided with ways to obtain food and protect itself and its kind. There was no evil in this, only a natural desire to survive. God has now removed those previous desires and established different ways of ensuring that the ecosystem on the New Earth can be sustained for eternity.”

“I still don’t understand why death had to be in the process at all,” said Adilah thoughtfully.

“On the Old Earth, death was essential to preserve the balance of populations. Local environments would soon have become overloaded if numbers had increased without a corresponding decrease due to death. Death was an essential part of that stage in God’s overall plan.

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