No Good Soulmate

There is a popular cultural saying that abounds today, “My dog is my soulmate.” Typically tied to this is a qualifier that the dog isn’t a soulmate in a romantic way, although I argue that we are moving that way more and more. The challenge here is that the animal is incapable of bearing this burdensome title and role. I’m going to unpack some of this for you.

When God created all things, He did so with the result being it was all “Very good.” In other words, there was no defect. It is the way the created order is intended to function, and to go against that flow is not without consequences. He created man as part of, but distinct from, the rest of His creation.

“And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28 Emphasis added)

Man was created to bring God’s order and rule to the rest of creation. This wasn’t to be done in a vacuum, but alongside a spouse, and subsequently alongside other people. if this weren’t enough, it is restated as a beautiful psalm by David:

“What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field…” (Psalm 8:4-7)

Among all of God’s marvelous works, man stands apart as a marvel among marvels, “fearfully and marvelously made.” But the scriptures tell us that man isn’t to be alone. It’s not good, and a helper is needed to fix that:

“Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone;” (Genesis 2:18a)

God said this while man was surrounded by the animals that God had created, yet God considers this to be alone, which is not good. As if to solidify the point, God showed man early on that the animals were not suitable for the task of being comparably fit as companions, the kind that man needs:

“Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man…but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.” (Genesis 2:18, 20 Emphasis added)

The lesser creatures are not suitable. Isolating yourself to your cats and dogs is equivalent to being alone, and it’s not good. To do so is to seek your own ruin, because that’s not how God made the world to function. In order to remedy this problem, God said:

“I will make a helper suitable for him.” (Genesis 2:18b)

God makes the first woman, Eve, and Adam’s first words are “At last.” It’s as if Adam had scoured all the animals, desperately looking for someone who could know him, someone that could help him in his mission to rule over creation, someone who could fix the problem that he was indeed alone…and God gave him a wife.

After this, more people were brought into the world, creating the first family, and then communities. In order for mankind to function as designed, this is necessary.

Christians should find this sort of soulmate talk as destructive and gross. It is destructive to the natural order of things. It is gross because it leads to the bottom barrel of grotesque sins. No matter how people try to excuse this sort of talk and behavior, it isn’t healthy. The owner and the animal both pay for it.

May Christ advance His kingdom in the pet industry. To God all praise and glory.