A Lesson From a Cat

If anyone knows me well, they understand my love for cats.

I have always loved cats - from my youth going down to our dairy barn and playing with the tons of cats that helped with the mice population, to having our own at the house, I cannot remember a time when I have not had a cat.  When Steve and I were married I wanted a cat and he was not keen on the idea - but within two weeks of our marriage he so sweetly "gave in" and we got our first cat, Freckles.  I sucked him in to the love of cats.  (He will be the first to say that he is not as big of a fan as I am but does love them...)  

I could be the Crazy Cat Lady.

So what lesson have I learned from a CAT?

Meet Macy - our supposedly outdoor cat that should eat mice but instead rushes inside as much as possible to enjoy being with our family and eat all of the indoor cat food so that she is pleasingly plump.  She might catch a mouse if it came right in front of her and laid down.

For some time now, Macy has had a fascination with our attic.  The pull-down is in the garage and anytime we have down the ladder she takes it upon herself to run up the rungs and see what adventures await her there.  In fact, any time she has goes missing we have learned to check the attic first.  It just "pulls" her for some reason.

This past Saturday, the same thing happened.  Wesley had been putting some things from the garage up in the attic.  When he came down to grab something else, he saw Macy fly up the rungs of the ladder to the attic where her curiosity could be fulfilled.  Macy is taken care of and loved greatly by us so why she thought the attic was such a great place was beyond us. 

When Macy heard Wesley come up the ladder she knew she was about to be caught so she shot to the right where we have a lot of our stuff stored.  He tried to get her by snapping his fingers and calling her.  He saw her in an opening between "stuff" and she just looked at him and began to go further away from him.  He had to go down and get a few more things so he figured she would come down soon. 

She didn't.

When he came back up he saw that she had not only continued her wayward path, but had chosen to go to the "wrong side" of the attic - the place where there is no plywood on which to walk and all you see is insulation.  It is a tricky place because one wrong move and you can go through the ceiling into the house.  As he looked, she jumped from one place to another until she actually became trapped between the area where the slope of the roof meets the house.  This place was not ideal.  It was dark, not a lot of room for her fat self, and had nails protruding through it from the shingles. 

In other words - she was stuck.

I was in the office and kept hearing a lot of scratching noises and movement in the attic.  I just figured Wesley was doing some cleaning out up there, too.  Little did I realize how my guy was on a rescue mission. 

Shortly thereafter, Steve got home and Wesley was telling him the problem.  We all went up to see how we could help.  Steve was concerned that we would have to cut away some of the wood in order to actually get her.  But what I observed in my son was very touching to me.

Instead of give up, Wesley precariously perched along main beams to rescue this cat.  (I realize she is just a cat!!)  He kept coaxing her and trying to calm her because by this time she was pretty frantic in her realization that she was stuck.  He kept reaching down to grab her so that she could be free.   He stayed with it until finally he was able to get a hold of her.  After a few attempts he finally was able to free her from her "trap" and held on to her tightly.  What was so sweet is that she held on to him tightly as well.  He had a hard time getting his balance from his position, but he finally was able to stand up and gingerly walk to one of the main beams of the attic to walk to me.  I then took her and brought her down the steps and into the house.

What lesson was learned from this silly cat, you might ask?

Macy is a picture of you and me. 

We have all we need in the Lord but our curiosity beckons us to get up in the attic of sin.  We sometimes see sin as the area of freedom and excitement.  We just think it is so much better to do our own thing. 

Just as Wesley was calling for Macy when she first went up to the attic, so does the Lord beckon to us when we begin to go astray.  He lovingly calls for us but we choose to turn and go further into the sin.  We think all is fun for a time - but then we get caught in a spot of that sin that isn't so grand.  We become like Macy and get stuck in a dark hole that has piercing nails sticking through it.  There is no way out - or so we think.

Then, as Wesley went to great lengths to get to where Macy was trapped, so does the Lord come to us when we are trapped in sin.  He is there, calmly calling us to Him. 

He is trying to rescue us. 

He is our Redeemer. 

He is our Savior.

We insist on handling it our way whether by "religion" or by other plans and begin to get more trapped in the darkness.  Finally, just as Macy had to learn to give up the fight against Wesley's loving hands, we give out of strength and allow the Lord's loving hands to guide us back to the safety of His arms. 

It is there we learn to cling to Him - and realize He loves us enough to save us from our sins.

As I stood up in that attic and watched that event take place I began to formulate this blog post.  It was such a picture of what Christ does for me and I was in awe of the love of my Savior.  I can look back on my life and see times where I chose my own path and it was just like Macy and our attic.  I thought I knew best.  I thought it was good to do what I wanted instead of run back to the Lord.  He had taken care of me lovingly but I chose to ignore it because the pull of sin was more enticing. Through all of it, the Lord of the Universe was there calling to me - (who is just a human!!)  Because of what He went through on the Cross of Calvary and how He defeated death, He lovingly was there as my Redeemer and he reached down to save me from my sin.  He stayed with me until I learned to let go of my sin and let Him pull me from my darkness.  I learned through that love how to cling to Him beyond anything I have ever known.

I am not sure I will ever be able to go back to the attic without reliving that moment and having a new appreciation for what the Lord showed me that day.  What a beautiful picture of His redeeming love.

And the Lord used a small part of His creation to show me such a powerful lesson  - a lesson from a cat.