Note Card Party: The Cats

I am often attracted to cards with animals on them.  Animal faces can be so expressive, and if you're an animal lover, those faces can win you over in a hurry!  Vee is hosting her monthly note card party (you can join in too!), and I have gathered a few pictures of our feline babies to share. 

Oh, these faces have certainly won us over! 

My girls had wanted to have a cat for years.  But Ron said no to an inside cat (he did not want a litter box, nor clawed furniture), and I said no to an outside cat (I didn't want to risk it being hit on our busy road); thus, we had no cat.  But the Lord brought two cats to us.  Really.  They appeared on our property within a few months of one another, one male, one female, both neutered!  One wanted very much to be an inside pet; one wanted no parts of the inside...the great outdoors is fine, thank you very much.  And although it took us a while to win them over, they had won our hearts in no time.  (You can read the beginning of our cat story in A Lesson Via Stray Cats.)

Here is Pinky, perched by Bekah's "Kitty Cucumber" Christmas tree. 

Pinky has probably been on the very top of every piece of furniture in the house. 

We even found her straddling the top of a door one day,

eyes as big as saucers, waiting for someone to rescue her.

James Herriot once said, "Cats are connoisseurs of comfort." 

Pinky fits that description.

Puss is a big teddy bear. 

It was almost a year before we touched him for the first time,

and he is still quite timid.

But he loves his people now...as long as we are inside the back porch.

If we are out in the yard, he doesn't know us.  He has issues. 

Bekah took this picture of Puss, napping on his porch with his little tongue sticking out.

He is the sweetest thing.

Since they arrived in our yard, these kitties have taught me many spiritual "object lessons."  If you have the time or inclination to read, I am sharing one such lesson below. 

Be sure to visit A Haven For Vee,

and see some amazing photographs at this month's

Note Card Party!

 

DEBTOR

(originally posted December, 2010)

The poor little black cat had apparently been hit by a car. I passed its lifeless body several times last week as I drove to and fro on a road near my house, and it pulled at my heartstrings. I have a soft spot for animals anyway, but this particular cat reminded me of our own Pinky.

That could have been Pinky, I mused as I drove by.

It could have been Pinky, for Pinky was a stray who just showed up at our house one February.

But if she had not come to our house where there was food outside for another stray cat...

If she had not found a house with two girls who loved her immediately...

If those girls had not had parents who had a soft spot for a cantankerous but needy little kitty...

If we had not taken her in, to safety and food and love...

But Pinky has no idea.

Here she is...with humans who love her, with plenty to eat, with a warm house...and she lives like the Rum Tum Tugger*. "She will do as she do do, and there's no doing anything about it."  She is totally unaware of her good fortune.

And I am afraid that I am like Pinky.

My Heavenly Father has rescued me. He "brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings." (Psalm 40:2)

He feeds me with Living Bread. "I [Jesus] am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." (John 6:35)

He loves me with "an everlasting love." (Jeremiah 31:3)

He has promised never to leave me. "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." (Matthew 28:20)

He has provided eternal life with Him in Heaven. "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." (John 14:2, 3)

He gives me grace and mercy every single day in the here and now. "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." (II Corinthians 12:9)

And what do I do?

I should fall down at His feet and cry out with gratitude and worship. I should wonder why I should be so favored, when I have done nothing at all to deserve His kindness.

And yet I am like Pinky. I sometimes live as if His grace is natural, is normal, is expected...oblivious to the fact that I could—I should—be anywhere but in His family. I live as if unaware of His great mercy.

When this passing world is done,
When has sunk yon glaring sun,
When we stand with Christ in glory,
Looking o’er life’s finished story,
Then, Lord, shall I fully know—
Not till then—how much I owe.

When I stand before the throne,
Dressed in beauty not my own,
When I see Thee as Thou art,
Love Thee with unsinning heart,
Then Lord, shall I fully know—
Not till then—how much I owe.

Chosen not for good in me,
Wakened up from wrath to flee,
Hidden in the Savior’s side,
By the Spirit sanctified,
Teach me, Lord, on earth to show,
By my love, how much I owe.**

"Even on earth, Lord, make me know something of how much I owe."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

* "The Rum Tum Tugger" by T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)
** "I Am Debtor" by Robert M McCheyne (1813-1843)