The Almighty, The Prodigal Son and Two Cats: Part Two
This is the second part of a two-part story about two cats, one lost man and an amazingly graceful God. If you missed the first act, here’s the link. While its uniquely my story, it’s universal in its message of God’s unconditional love for all people and all creatures. God loves me, and God loves you.
With my unexpected falling into love, I would no longer just say no to pets, as I welcomed a cat into my life. Unaware and unknowing that this new feline companion would soften my heart, break my heart and humble my heart. A hairless cat would do all that and God’s love begat that through his little suede cat.
With the passing of our Sphynx in 2020, my heart was wrecked. This deep devastation and sorrowful state would pave the way for my ego to surrender itself to God. At fifty-five, I could no longer carry the pain and suffering of a life built on sands of misplaced faith. In my sheepish service to the status quo and its stuff, I lost my soul.
Spiritually asleep, I was blind and submissive to Babylon. Believing and trusting in a government and worldly institutions I was told to trust and believe in because they would never harm me or hurt other people. A noxious narrative so full of lies and mistruths that it poisons our hearts and pollutes our minds. An ancient story about a garden Deceiver that lives in all our hearts.
Reborn and repentant, my life was renewed. No longer believing in the institutions of this world, my heart reoriented itself towards God’s kingdom. Painfully aware with each passing day, all the love I felt for our departed cat and all the love that God feels for all of us as we mourn love lost. Love that’s never really lost, only momentarily hidden.
While a man made plague of lies and a pandemic of fear gripped the world, God would help me understand love’s limitless generosity. Helping me recognize my heart’s copious capacity to create love. Learning like Mary Richards that Love is all around.
To know God is to know Love. And with this new knowing, it was time to let go of false beliefs and learn a new way of living. The Way of Truth and Life.
Love doesn’t view life as a zero-sum game because Love is generous. God only wants love to fill our lives even as we mourn. Love is good and plenty.
Seven months of mourning and bittersweet memories would transform my newly surrendered heart, while the world struggled with its own illness. This self-inflicted disease was filling animal shelters nationwide with innocent collateral. Pets abandoned by their owners either through disease, death, despair or dereliction.
It was also time to open my still healing heart and welcome another cat into our lives, this time through adoption. An act of love honoring our recently deceased kitty, honoring my adoption and honoring God. My born-again heart full of humility and gratitude for all the blessings God has given me, beginning with my arrival into this life.
During the dying dog days of summer, we began browsing animal shelter websites. Scanning these animal safe spaces for our next cat companion and wanting to adopt every kitty we saw. Tempering our desire to do good with our responsibility to do right by the cat we would eventually adopt.
The cat we adopted had done time twice in the system. His repeat performance was aided and abetted by his propensity to bite his owners well aged shins with his hairy chin. A young male cat who experienced some trauma at a very early age. A cat who teaches me daily that love is patient and kind in between his “nibbles.”
As opposed to a fleshy chamois, he wears a short haired coat of black and white fur. Honoring our Sphynx, Mozzer, by naming our adopted cat Harry. Honoring my birth mother by rescuing a feline who needed a loving home. Honoring my parents by welcoming this cat into a loving home. Honoring God by taking care of His creatures, particularly creatures we have hurt.
Grief and God and cats helped me appreciate that love is abundant and ample. Learning that love is generous; it’s never a zero-sum game. Understanding that love is a choice, like all of our life’s choices. Like choosing a distressed cat that needed a loving home and a loving heart that needed a distraught cat.
While bread sustains us, its Love that gives our life’s meaning and purpose. Love is what honors God. Love is the eternal and endless well-spring that purifies our hearts and lives within all our hearts if we choose.