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By Dr. James L. Snyder

I must confess that I do have a liking for critters of all kinds. I enjoy feeding them out on the back porch, and boy, do they come hungry for their treats.

Unlike me, The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage is not very fond of critters of any nature. The only critter she likes is Yours Truly. I guess I’m enough of a critter to satisfy any longings like that. I hope she doesn’t try to scratch my head.

We have about five cats, four raccoons, two possums, and lately, our newest critters are chickens from our neighbor next door.

If The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage sees these chickens, she immediately opens the door and chases them away. She will often throw water at them to keep them from returning.

Obviously, they’re not that frightened of her and return on a regular schedule. To them it’s Treats over Fear.

Out on the porch, we also have a bunch of birds, and at times hummingbirds. We have a lot of wasps and bees flying around. Then we have ants galore. Somehow, they found the bowl of kitty food and try to come as often as they can.

And then we have lizards. For some reason, they came to our back porch and moved in. They act like they own the place and do all kinds of lizardly things.

One morning, I was in the bathroom getting ready for the day when I noticed in the shower a little lizard. He climbed halfway up the wall and just stared at me. I think he thought I was the intruder.

I stared back, talked to him a little bit, and told him to be careful of the other person in the house. He just stared at me and blinked his eyes.

I had forgotten that incident, and later in the day, as we were drinking coffee together, I happened to remember it. I looked at my wife and said, “I had a special visitor in the bathroom this morning.”

She stared at me and said, “Who was that special visitor?”

I laughed very heartily and said, “That visitor was Henry.”

Looking rather strange and confused, she said, “Who is Henry?”

“Ah, my dear, it was a lizard. I just call him Henry because we’re friends.”

“In your bathroom?” She gasped.

With that, she jumped up and ran to the bathroom looking for Henry. I could hear her frantically calling his name for well over an hour. Finally, it grew silent, and she came out from the bathroom and sat down.

“Well,” I said with a smile, “did you meet my friend Henry?”

Scowling at me, she said, “I flushed your friend down the toilet.”

With that in mind, I thought of an important Bible verse. “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” (Genesis 1:26).

From God’s perspective, we who have been created in His image and likeness, have a responsibility to care for the animals God has created. He has authorized us to care for them in obedience to His Word.

Dr. James L. Snyder lives in Ocala, FL with the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage. Telephone 1-352-216-3025, e-mail jamessnyder51@gmail.com, website www.jamessnyderministries.com.