The Almighty, The Prodigal Son and Two Cats: Part One
This is a two-part story about two cats, one lost man and an amazingly graceful God. While its uniquely my story, it’s universal in its message of God’s unconditional love for all people and all creatures. After forty years of wilderness wandering, I would finally surrender my heart to God. Fully and finally knowing that God loves me, and God loves you.
I grew up in middle America, in a middle-class home, in the middle of the 1970s. Dad and Mom along with my sister and brother and always a dog. A very common experience shared by millions of people in suburbia and elsewhere for the last 20,000 years*.
We dote on doggies, and they dote on us. Like all domesticated animals they depend on humans for life’s basic necessities. In return, they grace our home and fill our lives with gracious love. Like all creatures created by our shared Creator, they are God given gifts.
I like dogs and I have many friends who love their dogs. But it was a feline, not a canine, that God would use to soften my hardened heart. A life wandering in darkness; a life without Love.
In comparison to dogs, we often don’t equate cats with affection let alone love and maybe there’s a touch of truth to this stereotype. Whenever I call my cat to come over and be with me, I usually get a standing stare. But that’s the inherent danger of all stereotypes, generalizations are never truth.
Cats do love people, but it’s always on their terms. They’ll rub against your leg to say hello. They’ll sleep with you at night to be near. They’ll plop unexpectedly in your lap to show you love. Gentle reminders that genuine love isn’t about demand; it’s about free choice.
Like everything about my earthly existence, my life before cats consisted of business and pleasure. Business to fuel my pleasures and pleasures that required funding through business. A career that contributed little to the world, even if I wanted to believe otherwise to survive my deep unhappiness and wide meaningless.
Because God continuously and constantly pursues only love for all His children, God never gave up on this Prodigal Son. Employing a pet to open my heart, to save my life and to hurry me back Home. God sending a cat to rescue this lost lamb.
My life as a lover of cats began with a new love in my life. Someone whose life was turned upside down by evil, but who survived through the grace of God and the love of a cat. A cat who comforted him when the humans in his life abandoned him during his dark night of the soul.
Now God would work through my new love and begin to humble my hardened heart. Beginning with the addition of our newly welcomed feline companion. Melting my years of rigid resistance to having a pet in my home and a dependent in my life. Thawing a heart frozen in selfishness and chilled by suffering.
Because God has a sense of humor, our cat was unique, a Sphynx like Mr. Bigglesworth. His only body hair was a white patch on his nose. An adolescent Santa with peach fuzz or a four-legged Yoda.
The rest of his body dressed in a fleshy colored chamois. A pink naked cat with pointy ears and a skinny tail; and I unconditionally loved him at first sight. Just like my human love on our first night.
My life’s demarcation lines aren’t arranged by accomplishments or age, but by relationships. These signposts of my time in this world also include scratching posts. My pet cats being some of my closest connections. Falling deeply in love with these mysteriously wonderful creatures.
Over fifteen years ago there was BC Don (before cat). A world that was only about me. Then suddenly on a Saturday in March 2009, my self-serving world vanish. Superseded by Don AD (affectionate and demonstrative, at least with my cat). Unconditionally loving and tenderly caring for this new kitty in my life.
This little curious cat would find the cracks in the insurmountable wall that surrounded my closely guarded heart. As he explored my forbidden fortress, he would also make his home there. A pet’s love breaching my walls and laying my heart bare.
A feline would prepare my heart to finally accept God’s unconditional love for me. A child who had lost his way as he wandered through a world of stuff. A man who had renounced the Love within him to serve something other than Love. A creature of God who came to understand what it means to live with a heart both broken and blessed.
In January 2020, our Sphynx would leave this world. My eyes awash in a sea of salty tears as I released him from his painful suffering. My heart aching for my chamois companion. Rightfully returning his little cat soul to God, the Creator of all life; pets and people.
My heart’s wall’s destroyed; my heart devastated. My goodbye to my beloved cat companion, along with a series of life upheavals would save my life and awaken my spirit. After thirty years of running from God, I would run to God; my heart opened by the All and the Mighty and his little cat.
Next week my story of God and cats continues.
*Estimated domestication of dogs is 26,000-19,700 years ago