Isn’t it just so cute when someone puts a little sweater on their dog? And what an industry is growing in the care of pets. You can drop your cat or dog off at a daycare center much like you can your child. Just the other day I heard that congress was actually considering a tax credit for pets similar to the tax credit for dependents. How long will it be before you purchase health insurance for your pet?
People become increasingly emotional and upset when they hear about cruelty to an animal. I too find intentional acts of cruelty to animals as inexcusable. An act of cruelty to an animal gets news headlines more and more each day, while abused children and abortion become increasingly passe’. I have heard people, including professing Christians, make statements that they like, no make that love, their pets more than they do people.Â
Now, when we get to this point something has gotten out of balance. Pets are increasingly becoming the companions of people – in place of other people. Is this how God intended it? Take a look at Genesis chqpter 2, verses 18 through 20. It reads like this, “The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”  19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.
      But for Adam [g] no suitable helper was found. ”
Amongst the animals no suitable helper, or companion was found for Adam. Instead God created a companion for him from his own flesh. Someone who was like him in very nature. This became his suitable companion and people remain the suitable companions for people today. This is not limited to a spouse, but is indicative of a higher level relationship that is only possible between people; higher than that which is possible between people and their pets.
So why do we see a growing trend of people preferring pets and what are the real problems with this? As mentioned, relationship with other people is a higher level relationship so there is a connection at a higher or deeper level. These relationships take more effort and attention. Certainly we care for our pets by feeding them, etc. and this requires effort, but it is a different kind of effort.Â
To build and maintain a human to human relationship that is not merely superficial, but rather is meaningful, requires acceptance and patience; much more-so than with a pet.   People often talk about their pets giving them unconditional love. Think about that term for a minute, ‘unconditional love’.  We find it so endearing from our pets yet we are unwilling to extend it to other people. Unconditional love means we love someone without conditions. There are not expectations of something in return. There is simply love given. Are animals really capable of such love?
Our relationship with our pets can only go so deep. Our dog cannot understand what we are feeling and they certainly cannot empathize with us. Our cat’s purring may be soothing but it won’t do much for us in the way of helping us know how to handle that situation at work better. Our relationships overall are becoming more superficial, that’s why our society is becoming increasingly more dependent upon their relationships with their pets rather than with people.
Pets do not disappoint us as much because we do not expect as much from them. We do not have to really open up to our pets or make real emotional sacrifices in our relationship with them.  They cannot sin so therefore we do not have to forgicve them. That may sound great, but the same thing that keeps them from being able to sin is the same thing that keeps them from being able to forgive. They cannot do extreme wrongs, but that which limits them from doing great wrongs also limits them from doing great good.
Our ever-growing dependence on our pets as our ‘companions’ is a symptom of our dilution of real, sincere, meaningful relationships in our lives. It takes a lot to love other people deeply and it comes with risk, but it also comes with reward. Where there is little risk there is little reward and likewise where there is great risk there is great reward. How much risk did God take in loving us the way He did?