A Four-year-old Boy and a Silverback Gorilla: A Christian’s Perspective

I don’t know how a four-year-old little boy managed to end up in that moat.  I can’t imagine the terror in the mind of that Mommy as she watched for long minutes as her little one was helpless and in danger.  I don’t know if it’s a good idea to have such animals confined.  I am certain that many who are second-guessing both mom and zoo are dealing with a view of life that is either uninformed or dangerously naïve.  But there are a couple of things that come to this writer’s mind.

First, there was a time when all animals would have never done harm to a human being.  There was a natural and universal sense in animals that mankind was the crown of God’s creation and they would have given a four year-old a respectful distance.  That was when creation came from the hand of the Creator.  God himself said it would be that way:  “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it.  Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”  (Genesis 1:28)  In that world a zoo as we know it would have been quite unnecessary.  Mankind and the animals would have lived in proximity to one another and there would have been no danger posed by one to the other.

But that world – and that relationship between man and animals – no longer exists that way.  It hasn’t since the fall into sin.  It is safe to assume and unwise to ignore that the relationship of man and animals is included in St. Paul’s observation in Romans 8:20 – “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.”  Like everything else in the fallen world, the relationship of man and animals is broken, too.  Now there are animals that will not only resist man’s rule, but even kill him.  The idea of the noble ape who will cuddle and protect one of mankind’s little ones may sometimes happen, but it is foolhardy to assume that it always does.  Knowing what I know about how sin and the brokenness it has brought to our world affects all things, I would never bet the life of one of my grandkids who was in that situation that the animal would “do the right thing.”

Second, I am certain that Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:26 have something to say to us here:  “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?”  That four-year-old boy is much more valuable than any animal.  That four-year-old boy is part of the crown of God’s creation.  That little boy has an immortal soul.  God himself attached priceless value to that child when he spent his own Son to redeem him from sin, death and hell.   None of that is true of an animal.  Jesus did not die to redeem gorillas and not even angels; he died to redeem human beings.  To make the life of a child equivalent to the life of an animal does not elevate animal worth; it cheapens human worth. 

It is a tragedy that the situation unfolded as it did so that a magnificent silverback had to be shot.  The great apes are an amazing and magnificent part of God’s creation.  They deserve to receive the same careful stewardship and appreciation as every other thing God has made.   But if the choice is between an animal’s life and a human being’s life, the choice should be clear.