Creation
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind and the cattle of every kind and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:24-25
STORY
Bob Barker was a fixture on daytime television for half a century, first as the host of Truth or Consequences from 1956 to 1974, and, most famously, starting in 1972, on The Price Is Right, the longest-running game show on television. The last show, on which he was the host before being replaced with Drew Carey, was taped on June 6, 2007
Almost a decade before he retired in 2007, Barker estimated that during his tenure more than 40,000 contestants had heeded the announcer’s familiar call to “come on down!” and collected some $200 million in small and large prizes from beach blankets to Buicks, by guessing the prices of various objects. He once said that the show had lasted as long as it did because “all our games are based on prices, and everyone can identify with that.” He added, however, that he personally never knew the price of anything, and that if there ever were a contestant who did the show it would have been “a total failure.”
Barker was widely known for his longstanding dedication to the cause of animal rights. He supported a wide range of efforts to fight, what Barker and animal rights advocates, saw as rampant animal cruelty in American society. As one of the most prominent allies of the movement in Hollywood, he became a strict vegetarian, stopped dyeing his hair because the products were tested on animals, and in 1988 quit his job as host of the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants because their organizers refused to remove fur coats from the prize packages. He also protested the mistreatment of animals by their trainers on the sets of various movies and television shows.
He donated $25 million to establish the DJ&T Foundation, which finances clinics that specialize in spaying and neutering pets. The foundation was named after his wife, Dorothy Jo, and his mother, Matilda Valandra, who was known as Tilly. He also donated $5 million to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society at the urging of its founder Paul Watson, who used the money to buy a ship, named after Barker, which was to be used in the organization’s anti-whaling campaigns.
In a 2004 interview with The New York Times, Barker explained, “There are just too many cats and dogs being born. Animals are being euthanized by the millions simply because there are not enough homes for them. In the United States, there is a dog or cat euthanized every 6.5 seconds.” For this reason, he ended every installment of The Price Is Right saying: “Help control the pet population. Have your pet spayed or neutered.”
DEVOTION
All the events in the creation story points to one singular message – harmony. From the creatures in the sea to the creatures in the sky to the creatures of the land, all lived amicably. Members of this entourage, of course, are people. At creation, all living beings resided in the Garden of Eden and it was a place of tranquilly. Certainly, even though the scriptures don’t reference it, the environment of the Garden spanned the globe. Creation was enveloped in peace.
Humans were given a special place in this divine establishment for on the sixth day we learn: Then God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
Sadly, paradise imploded shortly after it was established and a cooperative spirit was suddenly overshadowed by a competitive enterprise.
The name “humans” comes from the Latin word Homo sapiens which means “wise man.” Homo sapiens was applied to people in 1758 by the biologist and physician Carl Linnaeus, who is considered the father of taxonomy.
As humans, as people, as individuals, you and I are the wise ones in God’s established order. We have a special calling to nurture society back to its origins. We know, as evangelical Christians, this task will always be incomplete until the Parousia, yet, until then, we cannot cease in our efforts. Among those that surround us, we must foster acceptance and understanding and tolerance. Most significantly, we must promote dignity.
James Alfred Wight is an English author better known to us by his pen name James Herriot. His first book in a series, published in 1972, was titled All Creatures Great and Small.
In the book we meet the young Herriot as he takes up his calling and discovers that the realities of his veterinary practice in rural Yorkshire are very different from the sterile setting of veterinary school. Some visits are heart-wrenchingly difficult, such as one to an old man in the village whose very ill dog is his only friend and companion, some are lighthearted and fun, such as Herriot’s periodic visits to the overfed and pampered Pekinese Tricki Woo who throws parties and has his own stationery, and yet others are inspirational and enlightening, such as Herriot’s recollections of poor farmers who will scrape their meager earnings together to be able to get proper care for their working animals.
From seeing to his patients in the depths of winter on the remotest homesteads to dealing with uncooperative owners and critically ill animals, Herriot discovers the wondrous variety and never-ending challenges of veterinary practice as his humor, compassion, and love of the animal world shine forth. Through their love for their animals and each other, the characters experienced joy, pain, hope, satisfaction, and despair. The animals’ lives are instructive models for readers, whom the ultimata of birth, death, and disease frame the daily morality of living. These people, give or take an odd one, are good, and, without preaching, that readers should learn from them.
The title page, which reprints the lyrics from a Christian hymn, affirms the respect that everyone must have for God’s creation:
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.