Savior – goodchristianfiction

Lesson One: If You Want Something, Ask For It

If you have never had a cat, then you might find the concept of being in the house with your pet for an entire day without ever interacting with him a bit jarring. But, in the feline world, such days are business as usual.

However, whenever my cat is ready to need me, he has no problem making his needs known. He might meow loudly and arch his back at you. He also loves to plant his front legs squarely and heavily on the middle of your sleeping chest. If you are bald like my husband, he may even use the method of licking your forehead with his sandpaper tongue.

The bottom line is, the cat lets you know he means business. And the business he is always about, or at least mostly about, is being fed. In addition to his three squares, he also likes fish flakes, treats, and even carrots! Getting food and water for my indoor cat is the only essential need he cannot achieve for himself.

Lesson Two: Be Careful What You Ask For

Mastering the manipulative art of begging for his supper has an unwanted side effect for my isolationist feline. He often has to suffer my unwanted attentions.

Sometimes, despite his desire to be out of my arms, my cat’s body responds seemingly against his own will. A deep, melodious purr emits from his belly, a calming balm to me that seems at odds with the semi-wild look in his eye as he gauges when best to wiggle out of my grip.

Like so many of us, he seems at times like this, almost double-minded. He wants to be near me, but not so near that my person comes in contact with his catness. He has yet to master the actually comfortable position of being loved and free at one and the same time. Instead, he mistakes my affection for a cage he is all too eager to escape, even if he purrs while doing the escaping!

Lesson Three: Be Still

No one sleeps more peacefully than a cat. We humans toss and turn. Even dogs chase rabbits in their dreams. But cats know how to curl in a ball or stretch upside down and breathe in perfect peace for hours on end.

It is not uncommon to leave the house and come back several hours later to find my cat in the same sleepy position in which I left him. Just watching his fur slowly rise and fall can make me feel less stressed.

The rain may pour outside, the electricity may flash on and off in the house, and the television may blare away the hours, but my cat sleeps through all of it in perfect harmony with himself and the world around him, all he knows of reality.

Lesson Four: Go With The Flow

When I brought home a second cat many years ago, my tomcat’s first response was to run into the bedroom and hide under the bed! As I hauled him out by his back legs and carried him through the house to show him the new member of the family had been isolated for the time being, he even had the temerity to hiss at me.

After I told him he was being silly, he didn’t take long to figure out he still had reign over his domain. Within a few hours, he was sniffing at the door where the new cat was staying. In just a few days, he was so determined to meet the newest member of our family that we decided to take our chances, forget the two week isolation rule for new pets, and opened the bedroom door.

My tomcat didn’t take long to adjust to his new reality. He happily shared his food bowl and water dish, took turns at the bathroom faucet, and even slept within inches of his new buddy.

Despite the seeming closeness of my two pets, when I had to put the second cat to sleep, my tomcat also took this in stride. I never noticed that he even looked for his former housemate. If anything, I might go so far as to say that he is happier being the only cat in the house.

No matter if his household changes or he has to spend a few days at the vet’s, this cat manages to go with the flow. Because he knows that he has very limited control over what happens to him, he takes his situation at face value. He adjusts moment to moment. What else, after all, can he do?

I often think that if I were more like my cat, I would be a better servant of my God. God encourages me to ask for anything I desire that would please Him, assuring me that He will answer my request. He tells me that He will take care of my every need for the basics of this life. He makes Himself known to me best when I am still enough to listen for Him. And my relationship with Him is strongest when I face the challenges of this life in full knowledge of His promise to always have my back.

Most importantly, my God loves me enough to let me go, to give me the free will to choose Him. In the end, my devotion to my God is all the stronger because I long to know Him, not because He has made me follow.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a virtual slave to my cat, but I love him all the more because, in his own way, he draws me closer to the Creator who gives us the freedom to choose Him as our Saviour.

May the peace of the cat, and of our awesome God, be with you today and always.

In Christ,
Ramona

How many times have you ended a day thinking, boy, am I lucky God didn’t give me what I deserved to get today?

How many more times do we go through a day thinking, when is God going to give so and so what he/she deserves?

The key to a full, happy, fulfilling life isn’t a 60-inch television and a Mercedes in your driveway. Ask a Syrian Christian who has watched his baby slaughtered for refusing to deny Christ (if internet reports are indeed correct), or a single mom working three jobs to put not even enough food on the table, and they’ll tell you truthfully the value of material things.

The key to a full, happy, fulfilling life isn’t making sure that everyone around you is following the rules you’ve been taught or that you’ve decided were the right ones along the way. Just like commercials can lead us to pick up a package of cereal at the grocery store, we can too easily be led to believe that purple is red and right and wrong have middle ground in this capital-driven culture where we are bombarded with information always. Information distractions make it easy to point the finger at others’ wrong-doing, while we give ourselves a pass.

The key to a full, happy, fulfilling life IS knowing the word of God and concentrating on standing in the truth of that word, regardless of what the rest of the world is doing. When we stand in that truth, we know that we don’t deserve anything, especially not the love that God showed by offering His Son as a sacrifice for our sin. The knowledge of our own guilt should make us treat others more kindly, as fellow children of God. We all have sins we would rather hide. We all are known by God.

A God perspective not only sees through the eyes of love, it knows that God is infinitely patient and desires to have all of us in His Kingdom through our acceptance of Christ as our Savior. A God perspective doesn’t look for the faults in others, but encourages the good in all of us. It looks for ways to be the hands and feet of Christ. It even sees how television and social media might just be equated with Baal worship and Asherah poles if we are not careful.

We can never be too careful. The Jews of the Old Testament thought they were careful. But over and over again, they failed to follow all of God’s instructions, and inevitably, they paid for their failure to maintain the singularity of God as God. Eventually, they even lost the temple where He had dwelled among them.

But God’s patience is persistent. If you read the history chapters of the Old Testament, you see time and time again that God gives people generations to straighten themselves out, but when He hands down a sentence, it is eventually carried out. The wrath of God that is so vividly depicted in the Old Testament may make modern readers cringe and give those who are looking a handy excuse to forget about trying to apply God’s edicts to their lives, but they do so to their own detriment.

Fortunately for us, we have a Saviour who was willing to take the wrath we deserve upon Himself. Because God’s perspective sees us through the loving eyes of Jesus, we don’t get what we really deserve. We get life eternal with the One and Only God.

See the world through that perspective, and nothing will stop you. Walk in God’s truth and know the kind of peace that surpasses understanding. It is a life-long journey to completion, but we are not alone. Keep listening for the Holy Spirit every day. Keep praying to be guided by the Word of God. And be patient.

This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:3-4)