One way that biologists evaluate life is in terms of the capacity to experience pain. They tell us that the more pain a creature experiences, the higher the life form. A worm, for example, experiences little pain, but a dog can actually have moods. Dogs can grieve over people. One of the reasons why scientists say that humans are at the top of the biological scale is because humans have the keenest ability to experience pain.
But the thing that separates us from the animals is not primarily our ability to feel pain, it is our ability to feel pain vicariously for others. Our capacity for sympathy and empathy with others in their suffering not only provides enormous comfort but also reflects the image of God in us, who, as the Bible says, in Jesus, helps those who suffer, because he himself suffered.