Talk to the animals?

The closest I ever came to anyone who could talk with animals was learning about the Horse Whisperer. I was a teen when my father gifted me with a yearling American Saddlebred. Soon I discovered the methods used by horse trainers who understood the way animals think rather than training them with coercion and fear.

My yearling and I grew up together and while she never talked to me, she seemed to understand every word I said. I remember one time getting off her to close a gate and she ran off to the barn. I called, “You come back here” and she turned around and ran back to me. Unlike a dog, horses generally do not do that!

Tozer has an opinion about this. He says because Jesus was in harmony with nature (He commanded the wind and the waves, etc.) then the deeper our Christian commitment becomes the more likely we will find ourselves in harmony with the natural world around us. I was not a Christian when I trained that horse, but my experience has me nodding my head at Tozer’s thoughts.

He refers to St. Francis as a man some considered not in his right mind because he had great rapport with birds and animals. Tozer says this could be true because St. Francis was completely yielded to God. “He was fully taken up with the Presence of the Holy Ghost that all of nature was friendly to him.”

The stories about St. Francis could be legends, but biblically, the conflict in the world is caused by human sin, and as Tozer says, if all the sin was removed from this world, there would be nothing left to be ashamed of, to be afraid of, and certainly there would be no conflict.

For this, and in honoring and glorifying God, I have good reason to pray as David prayed, asking the Lord to rid me of sin and make me more like Jesus . . .

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin . . . Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. (Psalm 51:2, 10)

^^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, I can understand that Your heart is concerned to deliver me from the curse of sin and bring me into the center of Your will. If I were totally like You, possibly I could tell the wind to stop blowing, storms to cease, and the sun to shine. If I were like You, I might also heal the sick, raise the dead, and turn water into wine. Is this a mere wish? Hardly. Your Word says:

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. (1 John 3:2–3)

Being like You may not mean that I have Your power, but it brings me into closer relationship and a deeper understanding of the will of God. It means that I will understand what to say to the world around me because I hear You telling me to say it, and because I know that You will listen to my prayer and answer it.

As the Bible says, when I see You, I will be like You. In the meantime, a lot of purification is needed.