I've Been Around animals—farm animals, house animals, wild animals—all my life, and they are just as receptive to God's love as you and I are. God loves everything He made with tender affection, making His creation responsive to spiritual truth and love.

I love the story of Noah's ark in the Bible. In studying the account in Genesis, I was struck by God's powerful love for all His creatures. Think how much easier the whole ordeal might have been for Noah had he been instructed to build a boat only for himself and his family. Noah wouldn't have had to build such a huge boat. He wouldn't have had to gather food for the animals. He wouldn't have had to move them all in! (I especially appreciate this point, having faced severe frustration while moving just one pig from a stall to a trailer.) But because of God's love for all creatures, not one of them was too inconsequential to be left behind. As I pondered this, I realized then that every animal is an "ark animal." God cares for the least sparrow. In Luke we read, "Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?" (Luke 12:6).

In the same sense, the principle of mathematics works in solving all mathematical problems large or small. It's never too big or busy working on the logarithms of calculus to do simple addition. God, divine Principle, is equally available for large and small problems, human and animal problems. Illnesses concerning pets, farm animals, or wild animals can be opportunities for proving the power of God to heal any discordant condition.

When I was about ten years old, we lived in the country on a busy highway. Late one afternoon our faithful collie appeared in the yard with a large jagged piece of an automobile headlight protruding from his forehead. He lay down in a heap under a tree near our house. To me, the situation appeared frightening, and I thought the injuries were too serious to expect recovery.

That evening my dad removed the glass from the dog's forehead and covered him with a blanket. My mother, who practices Christian Science, prayed for the dog. She affirmed that the dog's true nature is spiritual, not material, and that God's love was embracing him. The next morning I was surprised and joyful to find him not only still alive, but looking alert. He quickly and fully recovered.

Years later my husband and I had a menagerie of animals, including horses, pigs, goats, chickens, dogs, and cats. When our house kitten began to show serious symptoms of the disease that had killed most of our outdoor cats, I felt very discouraged. In despair, I called for help in prayer from a Christian Science practitioner. She lovingly and confidently assured me that God loves all of His creation and that He alone possesses power and governs all. His power is never overwhelmed by evil in any form, including disease, and His harmonious government of the whole universe can be proved here and now.

Her strong conviction of these truths not only immediately restored my confidence in God's government and power, but also immediately healed our kitten, who only minutes before seemed so close to death that she could not so much as lift her head or her tail. That proved to be the end of many animal deaths on our farm that year. It was also the beginning of my renewed faith in God's power to heal even the most desperate situation.

Later when our son's pet raccoon became ill, I did not hesitate to call a practitioner. The baby raccoon had been thin and weak, but after I requested help from the practitioner, the raccoon soon became healthy and active.

When two of our small children began to exhibit the symptoms of pinkeye, a problem running rampant through the goat herd, I called a practitioner immediately to pray for the children and mentioned the goats as the seeming source. The practitioner assured me that each of God's children is precious to Him, and that He dearly loves each and every one. She reminded me of a healing sentence in Science and Health: "A spiritual idea has not a single element of error, and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive" (p. 463). Truth, like the light removing darkness, effortlessly removes the error just by being Truth, not by fighting against and overpowering an illness. Within a short time, not only were the children's eyes clear and healthy, but to our surprise and joy, the eyes of the entire goat herd were healed. Even two goats who had had pinkeye so chronically that they had become blind were restored.

Animals can teach us lessons about God and His creation. In them we see evidence of the unconditional affection and forgiving nature of Love. God's love goes out in all directions and includes all of His ideas—animals as well as you and me.