God and Gerry

Envy, sweet envy, 16 feet tall!

It swept over me when I saw Oklahoma chiropractor Dr. Joren Whitley treating what must surely be his most charming patient: Gerry the Giraffe.

Gerry’s owner summoned Whitley last year when he noticed the giraffe chewing his food strangely. A viral video has zinged around social media ever since, but it was new to me when I ran across it this February.

In the video, Whitley, who holds both human and veterinary licenses in chiropractic, kneels on a wooden walkway at the top of Gerry’s enclosure. The giraffe is just tall enough that his head clears the railing, allowing Whitley access—and allowing the videographer to capture the heart-melting sweetness of Gerry’s dark brown eyes, each fringed in eyelashes 5 inches long.

Whitley reaches beyond the railing to make gentle adjustments to Gerry’s jaw and upper neck. And after each adjustment, Gerry leans his head toward Whitley, clearly seeking affection. Onlookers tell Whitley that Gerry wants a hug, and each time, Whitley obliges. Finally, Gerry leans even closer, rubbing his face against Whitley’s the way a dog or cat might.

Oh, my word, just kill me now and bury me in heart emojis!

I immediately sent the video to our daily podcast host Mary Reichard, a passionate animal lover, with this message: “I’m sooo jealous!”

Of the man for having that job, Mary wrote back, or of the giraffe for getting a neck rub?

I replied: “Of getting to hug a giraffe!”

Giraffes—whimsical and Seuss-worthy—are one of my favorite animals. I like to think, half-secretly and without Scriptural evidence, that God created them just to amuse Himself. Indeed, all the creatures of the earth show us His delight, His imagination, His limitlessness. He is the Master Engineer, the One who made the mimic octopus, which can disguise itself as other creatures, and the deep-sea creatures that make their own neon light and the caterpillar that dissolves into a gooey soup and reorganizes itself as a butterfly.

God has made Himself known by the things He has made, Romans 1:20 says. “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”

In the introduction to a Hillsdale College course I’m taking on C.S. Lewis and Christianity, Hillsdale President Larry Arnn references a view of creation held by Thomas Aquinas. The Dominican friar and priest, Arnn said, believed God is so good, so filled with good, that His goodness overflows, and it is from this overflow that God creates. It is why He creates. God creates from the endless overflow of His goodness.

Aquinas is not alone in his view of God as overflowing with goodness. In describing God, the Westminster Larger Catechism echoes the same phrase. The 16th-century Belgic Confession describes God as “the overflowing fountain of all good.”

Perhaps this is why, the first time God reveals Himself to us in the Genesis Creation account, we see the sevenfold refrain, “and God saw that it was good.”

We know God made His children for His glory (Isaiah 43:7) and that the heavens declare His glory (Psalm 19:1). And whether Aquinas is correct about the why of creation or, to put a finer point on it, creation’s impetus, I find it a little thrilling to think of God as so overflowing with goodness that He had to create the gorgeous planet on which He placed us. Not “had to” in the sense that He was compelled (for who could compel God?), but instead that He is so full of love, joy, compassion, grace, creativity, and beauty that He just had to share it. Kind of like the way we can’t wait to share good things with our own kids.

And we know His grand plan will end in Ultimate Good. Even if the road is painful—even if He allows savagery, betrayal, disease, and death because of the corruption of our hearts—the road to glory is being daily paved in the blood of the Savior who is reconciling us to God’s overflowing goodness.

“For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth … as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:22-23).

So, whenever my faith slips or doubt creeps in, I look to His marvelous creation—to the kaleidoscopic northern lights, to the egg yolk that coalesces into an eagle, to the flawless face of a sleeping infant—and am instantly reassured.

God is. And He is good.