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MV Treasure Disaster

 This year, June 2020 will mark the 20^th anniversary of the launch of the largest penguin rescue operation in history. It was on 23 June 2000, that the Chinese bulk ore carrier MV Treasure sank off the coast of South Africa, in Table Bay, between Dassen and Robben Islands, which supports the largest colonies of African penguins in the world. MV Treasure spilled over 1,300 tonnes of bunker oil which oiled thousands of penguins on and around these islands.

MV Apollo Sea Sinking

 6 Years before with the oil spill from MV Treasure, we had faced what was, up till then, the worst oil spill off the shores of the Cape, endangering penguins, with the sinking of the MV Apollo Sea in a storm in June 1994. Almost 10,000 African penguins, most on Dassen Island, were oiled from the sinking of MV Apollo Sea.

Emergency Mobilisation

Like many other Capetonians, I recruited all the friends I could and mobilised staff from our mission office in Rondebosch to head over to SANCCOB (Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds), to volunteer and help with the cleaning and feeding of oiled penguins as best we could. Many were clearly emaciated and dangerously underweight. The oil was life threatening on many levels. It polluted their food and water necessary for nutrition and hydration. If they imbibed any oil, it was poison to their system. The oil also undermined their natural waterproofing and brought on the risk of being waterlogged, resulting in hyperthermia. They had to be cleaned. Many needed medicines and they all needed food.

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There is no doubt that animals will be in Heaven. The Bible is clear: “Now I saw Heaven opened, and behold a white horse…” Revelation 19:11. The Bible describes the angels around God’s throne as having features and characteristics like that of a lion, a bull and an eagle (Ezekiel 1). God Himself is likened in Scripture to a lion, a leopard, a bear (Hosea 13:7-8) and to an eagle (Deuteronomy 32:11). God made a good and perfect earth, populated by many animals. God directed Adam to name the animals – indicating relationship.

Creation Worships the Creator

The largest book in the Bible, the middle book of the Bible, the Hymn and Prayer book of the Bible, the Psalms, reveal that all of God’s Creation have contact with God (Psalm 93). All God’s Creatures praise Him. “Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures… beasts and all cattle; creeping things and flying fowl; …let them praise the Name of the Lord for His Name alone is exalted. His Glory is above earth and heaven.” Psalm 148:7-13. “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” Psalm 150:6
The living creatures around God’s throne who are singing Holy! Holy! Holy! is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His Glory! are animals (Isaiah 6:3).

Every Creature

The last book of the Bible presents the final climax of the ages when all Creation faces the Creator. First the four living creatures (the animal-like angels around God’s throne, as described in Ezekiel 1) praise God, then the twenty four elders, then the Redeemed people of God, then the angels (Revelation 4:6; 5:12). Finally the great scene is described when all living beings present their worship to Almighty God. “And every creature which is in Heaven and on earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: blessing and honour and glory and power be to Him who sits on the Throne and to the Lamb, forever and ever!” Revelation 5:13
Consider the Sparrows
God created all the animals (Psalm 104). All animals belong to God (Psalm 50:10). God cares for the animals. “Jesus said: ‘are not the five sparrows sold for two copper coins and not one of them is forgotten before God.’” Luke 12:6. It is that Scripture which inspired the first act of the Union of South Africa, the minting of the half cent coin and later the one cent coin with two sparrows on it – reminding us that God cares for the very least.

Animals Matter to God

There are those who say that animals do not matter, but the Lord Jesus taught that His people are worth more than many sparrows (Matthew 6:28). If a sparrow is worthless, then of what value are you? A hundred times zero equals zero. A million times zero still equals zero. For you to be of great value, the birds of the air must be of some value. Obviously animals matter to God because the presence of animals in Nineveh is recorded as one of the reasons for God’s mercy in not destroying that sinful city (Jonah 4:11).