What I Learned From My Cats

We have a number of cats, but one that is especially dear to me is named "Cookie". She belongs to my daughter and is over 12 years old. Cookie is not the sharpest tool in the tool shed, nor is Cookie pretty. How can I tactfully say that age has only helped not hurt Cookie's looks! She looks like a batch of blonde brownies that went wrong.

One day is was raining hard outside. You could see it. You could hear it. Yet Cookie stood by the front door and did that obnoxious meowing that only cats can do over and over again. We have three small windows that begin about waist high next to the front door. I could see out and knew that Cookie would not be happy on the front porch once I let her out. I explained this to Cookie in great detail knowing that sheer logic might somehow cause her to change her mind and distract her from her plan.

The problem was that Cookie did not have a human brain. She had a cat brain (and a small one at that!) Cookie did not have my perspective. I am much taller than she and could see out. All she could see was a door that was blocking her from her goal which was to go outside. The meowing persisted.

Finally, much like in the story Jesus told about prayer, where the Judge was being continuously nagged by the widow, I gave in to my furry little widow, opened the door, and released her to heart's desire. The winds blew. The rains came, and out she raced.

Cookie could not see me but I could see her through those three small windows. She looked around, took in her environment and turned back to the door and began to meow again. This time to be let back in. She had her heart's desire yet it was not to her liking.

I left her outside for a bit in hopes that she might learn something from this experience (which of course she didn't) and then let her back in.

I realized that this is the way we are with our Heavenly Father. We do not have His perspective. His ways are not our ways and His thoughts not our thoughts. All we have is the desire for what we want. We stand at the various doors in life and howl for what we want. The Lord, from a higher perspective knows that we will not be happy with what we are begging Him for. We get angry with God for not quickly giving us our heart's desire. This goes on and on until at times, God finally gives us what we clammer for only to watch us immediately turn back, wishing we had never gone out that door.

May we trust the one who is closer to us than a brother. May we not fall into temptation of blaming God for some of our closed doors, but instead realize that He is being so kind as to protect us from those things that would ultimately make us miserable.

Blessings,
Father Scott +