I have this cat named Rocky. Well he's not actually my cat, although I would like him to be. He has lived at my apartment complex for about 3 years and is taken care of by a few of us. We think he was abandoned by a neighbor across the street who lost their house and left town.
He was very skinny, but quite cute when he started hanging around our complex. He wasn't very friendly at first until a couple of the ladies started feeding him. He had found his new home. He is black and white and has a strong and distinctive chin which makes him look a lion. When he stalks squirrels and birds and such I call him "the Lion of the Savannah". We didn't know his name when he showed up. One of the ladies named him Rocky because he would go off on some sort of cat adventure for a day or two and come back all beat up from fights we assumed.
I love animals, but I am mildly allergic to cats, so I have never owned one. But Rocky is so cool that I have never been able to resist picking him up and giving him some love. In the early months of his time here, he was not very happy to be picked up. He would try to get down, and as soon as he was at a comfortable distance he would hiss at me. A couple times he batted at me with his claws and scratched me. None of that stopped me, and over time he has tolerated it more and more.
In recent months he has warmed to me and my children when they are here. Once he slept with my son Ethan, who is a kind soul that animals seem to warm up to rather easily. But usually he stays for a little while and then heads to door and back to his sweet freedom.
But tonight something rather amazing happened. Rocky worshipped and it transformed him today like I have never seen!
So how do I make sense of this?
I recently completed John Eldredge's new book Beautiful Outlaw, which focuses on the personality of Jesus, and how knowing him as he truly is, causes us to fall in love with him. It has totally changed my perspective of Jesus and is changing my life like nothing else ever has. By John's prompting, I have prayed and asked Jesus to invade my life each day. I give my life to Jesus to live his life. He has been answering that prayer every day in incredible and unexpected ways. I will share more examples in later articles.
Back to Rocky...I was coming upstairs from the laundry room tonight and I grabbed Rocky and sat him down outside my door. He was momentarily distracted from the sight of a bowl of cat food in the hallway. But as soon as I opened my door, he bolted right in.
"This is new", I thought.
He sat on the rug by my door while I was working at my computer. I had sort of forgotten about him, but when I got up to go get something to drink, I looked for him and called for him. He was no where in sight. Then I noticed that he had taken up a comfortable spot on a reclining rattan chair right next my desk chair. He looked at me for a second and then went back to grooming himself.
"Did you find a comfortable spot there, Rocky?"
He gave me that slightly arrogant look cats can give you as if to say "My grooming is more important than interacting with you!"
I went back to downloading the new set list for my "Infuse" worship team connection group. When the songs were loaded, I started listening to them and quietly worshiping the Lord and enjoying the cool breeze blowing through my window. I have gotten in the practice of telling Jesus I love him when the beautiful things he offers get my attention. I was just about to do that in awareness of this beautiful weather, when I glanced back at Rocky, expecting him to be deep in grooming mode.
I was startled to see him staring at my computer screen (my Itunes library was showing) with very wide eyes. His eyes are usually half closed in a serious stare. At that point the song "Carry Your Name" was playing and Rocky was locked on the screen with more focus than he would have been on an open can of tuna.
After a minute or so he sat up, steadied himself, and jumped from the chair he was sitting in to my lap. "Wow! What's got into him?!" I thought. He stared at the screen a little longer and then began kneading me and purring and leaning his head into me. I chuckled in sheer amazement as I petted him. He continued to eat it up like I had never seen, rolling around and demanding more and more.
He looked me in the eye and I began to sing to him, which by now was the song "Stronger" by Hillsong.
"You are stronger, you are stronger
Sin is broken, you have saved me
It is written, Christ is Risen.
Jesus you are Lord of All!"
He ate it up and rolled into me even more. Wow does Jesus ever have beautiful timing, and such unique ways of answering my prayers.
Jesus is Lord of all. All creation. Not just me and you, but all creation. The apostle Paul says that all creation groans for the day of its restoration (see Romans 8:18-22). Jesus offers glimpses of that day to come in the things he reveals to us each day. I long for that glimpse in the midst of a busy, stressful life.
Bonaventure put it this way in The Soul's Journey into God
Whoever, therefore, is not enlightened
by such splendor of created things
is blind;
whoever is not awakened by such outcries
is deaf...
Therefore, open your eyes,
alert the ears of your spirit, open your lips
and apply your heart...
Concerning the mirror of things
perceived through sensation,
we can see God...in them, as he is in them.
Also the words of Saint Patrick
I see the blood upon the rose
And the stars the glory of his eyes,
His body gleams amid eternal snows,
His tears fall from the skies
I see his face in every flower
The thunder and the singing of the birds
Are but his voice - and carven by his power
Rocks are his written words
All pathways by his feet are worn
His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,
His cross is every tree
And so the life I ask Jesus to fill me with each day came to me today through a transformed cat. How beautiful! I had to put Rocky back outside for the night at which time he hissed at me and lingered at the door, as if to say "Can't I stay a little longer?"
I love you more today than I did yesterday, Jesus! Thank you for revealing yourself to me through a cat. I can't wait to see what you reveal to me tomorrow!
