I get a lot of video shorts coming up on YouTube for horse and dog rescues. They frequently make me cry! These poor animals have been terribly abused, neglected or abandoned. Sometimes they have trust issues as they are so afraid, but often, even when they are terribly injured, they are just so grateful to be rescued.
Why do we have all these animal shelters, pleas for donations and potential pet adopters, and our hearts break because we KNOW these creatures deserve kindness and love and a safe home, but humans… not so much?
Maybe we turn a blind eye because we don’t want to get involved. We are scared to take someone that we don’t know into our home because we don’t know if they can be trusted, or to be taken for a fool by the person who begs in the street, takes our money and then simply feeds their addiction.
Somehow we understand that animals have a pure heart. They are shaped by their experience and circumstances, but even then will often show extraordinary trust and gratitude.
The bible says in Jeremiah 17:9
“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?”
I think the thing is, we don’t know if we can trust other people, because we know we can’t always trust ourselves. Humans are made in the image of God and have such amazing potential but, thanks to Adam and Eve, and the serpent of course, mankind fell. The simple joy of walking with the Lord in the garden was gone. We know only too well that the heart is deceitful!
When we look at these poor animals, they can’t speak, but their eyes plead… “Will you rescue me?” It is within our power to do something, even just for one. We can adopt, make a donation to a shelter, volunteer our time if we don’t have the money…
Father God looked upon his creation with mercy knowing that, like the animals, we were doomed to die without a rescuer. So he sent Jesus to be that Saviour, the one who hears our plea… “Rescue me!”
And he rescues every last one who calls on him. He adopts us into his family and calls us sons and daughters of the Most High. No longer abandoned, neglected or abused.
You may think you have it all worked out and you’re perfectly fine in this world, but one day something will happen that you didn’t expect, don’t want, is not part of your life plan, and you will realise that you DO need a rescuer!
Cry out to Jesus! Call on his name. He will always answer, he will always save.
The Finished Work 