Mybutchie.com

ARTICLE

 

OF RAINBOWS & FAIRYTALES

 

I don’t know. Maybe I’m different from others out there but I don’t understand why so many base so much of their hope, and entrust so much of that which they love--to so little. Why build our lives on shifting sands when a foundation of stone is so readily and freely available?

I mean, how can so many who have lost their precious, beloved little pets find so much comfort in fairytales and fanciful stories that don’t even pretend to have a basis in reality? Aren’t our pets worth more than that to us? After all those years of loving them so much, do we now turn to fantasies to help us explain where it is they’ve gone? What, do we never grow up? I realize we have deep and grievous pain that begs to be relieved and I can also understand children believing in such tripe, for their minds are yet soft and young, not experienced enough to discern that which is real from that which is not. But must we give ourselves over to fantasy?

Truth is that which corresponds to reality. In order to make a truthful statement, the object of it must correspond to what is being said about it. Or to affirm that we at least “believe” something to be true, there must be some sort of reasoning and basis to back up the “belief.” While it’s one thing to absolutely “know” something and yet another to “believe” it, there still has to be a reasonable basis laying a foundation for either the knowing or the believing.

Again, maybe I’m the one who’s different and maybe I’m the one who’s crazy—but I don’t think so. And what about you? I only know that whenever I’ve lost any of my beloved little pets over the years, and especially when I lost my favorite one of all time, my little Butchie, I’ve never thought for a moment that I should put my faith in an obvious fairytale, completely detached from all reality--especially if there’s the remotest chance of ever seeing them again.

Do you know what I’m saying? When I lost Butchie, I had to do more than I’ve ever done before to find out what’s going on. Will I ever see him again? Will he ever live again? Is he living somewhere even now? He means way too much to me, and finding out whether there’s any chance of seeing him again means so much that I don’t have time to play these silly games and to horse around with fairytale portentions of “kitty heaven,” or “doggie heaven,” or, even worse, some sort of made-up land “this side of Heaven” such as the Rainbow Bridge. No matter how popular these fables are, I can’t pretend to believe in them just to be comforted in my loss. I want to know the truth or die searching for it. And this I’d rather do than to give myself over to something that I already know can never be true. And what about you? Aren’t your pets worth more than that to you?

Why would I want to place all my hope or any of my faith in something conjured in the mind of someone I don’t even know? And, in point of fact, no one really knows who made this stuff up! To be sure, somewhere along the line, someone has written a beautiful little poem, and it is a very nice little poem—one that has brought much hope and comfort to many, many people grieving the loss of their beloved little pets. I have no problem with the fact that many have been comforted by its sentiments and so on, but it is, nonetheless, only a fanciful work of imagination without a hint of reality to it. And not only so, but there’s no credible “claim” to its having any reality or truth to it! NO ONE even dares to tell us “why” we should believe it’s true or what authority there is behind it!

[Note: These fanciful stories are not only limited to fables and fairytales. Other dangerous stories and accounts are also very suspect such as the many, almost commonplace, testimonies of near death experiences (NDE’s) and other mystical, “spiritual” phenomena as well. In this respect, NDE’s and other phenomena will be covered somewhat in future Articles such as “Other Strange Phenomenon”]

Believe me, I know the pain of losing a pet and I’m deeply acquainted with the grief and sorrow that comes with it. And I appreciate that so many have received so much comfort from such fairytales, myths and legends—I really do. After all, I’m human, too. I’ve loved Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz and many other heart-warming tales of fiction and fantasy and yet I’m able to walk away knowing them to be just what they are—fantasy! I enjoy them and they give me a good feeling, but I don’t apply them to my life as though they’re actually true and live as though they were. There has to come a time when we sit down all alone somewhere and think about it for a moment—to sort it all out. “Is this really true? Is this what I REALLY believe, or even want to believe? Isn’t my Butchie deserving of far more than all this? Doesn’t he mean more than fantasy to me?”

And what about you? Do you really want to believe that your dear pets are playing with all the others in some place called Rainbow Bridge waiting for the day you die and go to meet them there? And that then you’ll cross this ficticious bridge together entering into Heaven itself? Where do such ideas come from? And why should we even think about believing in them? Do we want to spend the rest of our lives telling others that this is what we believe and this is what our lives are really all about?

There is a heaven and there is a God who has made all that has been made. And I believe the Bible actually DOES give His people hope for seeing their pets again, and living with them forevermore. However, many people, for some reason, have not been able to see these things in the Scriptures. But perhaps they haven’t really looked very hard either.

Still, others will even say the Bible itself is nothing but a myth and a fairytale, but at least there’s a whole lot of evidence to the contrary that is available and that lays a very firm foundation for the claim that it is God’s word to us and that it is infallibly true. We are certainly free to reject this evidence if we want to, and many actually do, but we cannot deny that there’s at least a lot of it there. As for true fairytales, there’s not only no evidence available for their being factual and true, but rarely even any serious claim is ever made that they are.

[note: Basing, as we do, our hopes on the belief that the Bible really is true, please remember that just because your pets may live again, doesn’t mean that YOU will! Make sure that YOU will be there, too, or your pets may end up wondering whatever happened to you! Why not do yourself a favor and believe the Gospel, too? You may CLICK HERE to read all about it. It just may save your very own soul.]

Again, it’s nice and even somewhat soothing and comforting to read such imaginary things, playing along with them for a moment or two, and wondering to ourselves, “Oh how nice it would be if only this were the way things really were.” And not only so, but many of us are good at making up our own truth--things that we would like to believe are true and therefore also give us comfort in the thought that perhaps they are. Yet, if we’re making them up ourselves and have no real basis for actually believing them to be real, we’re simply creating our own myths and then living what seems right in our own eyes. But reality and truth are really real, despite what we would desire them to be and we would be wise to consider seeking out that which is true.

Fairytales and make-belief have their place in the world and at times can even paint a picture of reality for us if we keep in mind a proper perspective as to their inherent nature. But even so, we need to draw the line somewhere. We need to stop and realize that it’s only make-believe and that there’s absolutely no reason for us to entertain any hope in its being real and true at all. And then from there we need to gather up the pieces and start all over, finally being honest with ourselves and determining to search whole-heartedly for only that which is real and true. And, in the end, we will find that it is God Himself that we are seeking, for He is the beginning and the end of all.

It is far better to seek the truth as it is in God Himself, even though we may not be totally satisfied in this life, than to settle for make-belief and placebos that are so easy and soothing for us to believe but that, upon our entry into the next life, will avail us nothing at all. In fact, many will find such beliefs to be eternally detrimental to their souls.

And this seeking of the truth as it is in God Himself, we do for the sake of the truth itself and because our pets and our relationships with them are so much more deserving than all this simple stuff. Life is not all that simple and it really can be tough, but we have to do what we have to do and face these questions head on. It’s all too easy to latch onto some of these fairytales and to let our emotions run away with them, captivated by the first appealing thing that temporarily numbs our deep and unending pain. But we must take them for what they are—fairytales, fables, myths, legends, and stories made up in someone else’s mind.

Why waste our time? Why not look for that which is really real? For that which, when we find it in the end, will REALLY comfort and soothe our souls—forevermore!

[See also Article, “CRITIQUE OF THE RAINBOW BRIDGE”]

 

 

Note: More discussion on the topics of Articles such as this can be found in the book, "Will I See Him Again? (A Look at Pets in Heaven)," by Tom Waldron. The book is available from Amazon.com (see home page of Mybutchie.com for link). Also, please feel free to e-mail me with any comments or whatever you may have at:

 

tom@mybutchie.com