We’re sitting around the dinner table the other night, enjoying our homemade enchiladas and rice when I hear that unmistakable sound -- gagging, choking and then “blah-pth” -- cat throw up. Right under the dinner table…then again on the other side of the table…then again a couple of steps further.
Welcome to my gross world with four indoor cats.
One filled with us spending most of our time cleaning up poop, pee, hairballs, tufts of fur that resemble tumbleweeds and throw up found in the funniest places (do you HEAR the sarcasm?)
We have 3 litter boxes that really need to be changed daily but that we change about twice a week which means my house likely reeks of cat urine to the outside world. Fortunately for us, I guess, we must have grown accustomed to the smell and have friends that are kind enough to visit us anyway.
And the truth is, if I’m honest, I really don’t even particularly like cats.
I inherited three of them when I married my husband. I had one already but only because I couldn’t have a dog at the apartment I was living in and I got desperate for company and broke down and got one. And did you know that cats live a very, very long time. Like 20 years long?
My best friend’s son is allergic to cats so they can’t visit us often or for long. Which got me to thinking…what if I were to come down with a cat allergy…or someone accidentally left the door open and they escaped…or someone lost a cat and we could help them by donating one or four of them… I’ve always considered myself an animal lover so why do I find myself loathing these cute, playful little balls of fur?
When someone is nice to you, does things for you, makes you feel good, adds value to your life, makes your life easier, loving them feels natural.
But what about the grumpy woman in my office…or the church lady who was so rude to me the other night…or the man who sexually abused me as a kid? Does God really expect me to be able to love him? I mean, geesh, wouldn’t it be like a huge thing for me to just be able to forgive him? But love him? Impossible!
But see…that’s where God steps in. He says, "You can’t. Nobody could. Not by yourself. It is impossible…without Me." He says all we have to do is ask Him and He’ll send the Holy Spirit to fill us with His love and then we just let it flow - from Him - through us - to those people. You are a vessel for His love, not the creator of it. Tweet this!
So, as I try not to gag cleaning out stinky litter boxes or faint while wiping up cat throw up or not freak out while trying to squeeze money out of an already stretched budget for 4 cat vet visits and their flea/tick medicine…I am reminded of all the times God has done the impossible and how He is actually using these cats to begin to teach me how to love the unlovable. And I lay all this at Jesus’ feet. And guess, what?
I start to remember the way my husband pets those cats. How it calms him and melts away his stress. I remember how he used them to entertain our girls when they were babies and times now when the girls get a kick out of playing with them.
And all of the sudden, loving them…and others…doesn’t seem quite so impossible for me anymore.
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.” Luke 6:32
“Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.’” Mark 10:27 (NIV)
“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” Luke 6:27-28 (NIV)
“The godly care for their animals, but the wicked are always cruel.” Proverbs 12:10 (NLT)
“We love because he first loved us.” I John 4:19 (NIV)
