Missing the Blessings

Written by Wayne Roper

It’s been a few years ago now, during the early winter and on one of those cool rainy evenings. The rain had been hanging around all day, had slowed considerably but now had started up again, and it looked as if we were going to have rain for the entire evening. We had just finished dinner, and I strolled onto our porch to find that we had a visitor who had made her way out of the rain.

My wife nor I had seen her in the neighborhood before. She wasn’t sure she could trust us, nonetheless after much coaxing she appeared to have almost made a gesture to let down her guard. In her cat fashion, however, she just couldn’t do it and with some reluctancy she tracked back out into the dark rainy elements of the night. For a bit, we just watched and wondered if our visitor was looking to stay a while, or had we just made our only contact with her as her journey continued elsewhere? Our questions were not answered and the cool rainy conditions pushed us to return back into our warm, dry, and safe environment. As most evenings, we continued our chores and began to slow down our pace to ready for bed later. We decided to take one more quick look to see if our visitor might have changed her mind and returned back to the comfort of the porch.

As the light illuminated the porch, sitting crouched under a chair, sat our newest visitor. However, she did not hesitate to make her way off the porch and back into the rainy darkness. About that time something caught our eye as we heard the sound that triggered in my mind, the thought of– no that couldn’t be.

Well it was! Just as we were discovering another visitor to the evening, we heard another sound again coming toward us out of the rainy darkness. This now mother cat with her second kitten in tow by mouth carried it with watchful eyes onto the porch. As she dropped her baby before us she seemed to say, “please can we stay for the evening sir, please?” However she was on a mission to save her new family members from the raw of the night and soon returned with one more crying baby kitten. Each time with watchful eyes upon us asking the same question, “please sir, just for the evening, please?”

Now you must also know that just a couple months or so earlier, Jean’s beloved cat and companion of 18 years died, and she had been grieving the loss of her friend. We had some discussions about the possibility of getting another cat. I was holding out and giving as many reasons why we should not consider such a notion, and now it seemed my efforts would be in vain. Not only had God listened to my wife, in His fashion of blessing, we now had four new feline friends. Of course this meant with each new guest would come the chore of feeding, and caring for them, yet another reason I had used in defense of such a decision. We did the only thing we could do…we fed our new guest, put out a box for a bed, and began to make them each feel welcomed. Days passed, and we made sure the grocery list included food for kittens as well as another kind of food for mother. We also made sure they would be remain warm, etc. I do have to admit, the time we had watching kittens play was most enjoyable, however in the back of our minds we both were not sure that this would really work out. After all, the cute kittens would continue to grow, and there comes the cost of medical care, etc. Additionally, we noticed that the mother, whom was so skittish and not totally trusting of us, was teaching her babies to act the same way. So we found that our new guests would only come but so close to us. On those cold winter nights, we would have made sure that our new guests would remain warm by being allowed to move inside our garage and even visit in our home complete with heat, food, safety (high standards for any cat), and lots of love and extra attention. Sadly, they simply would not have anything to do with it and seemed content in having just their basic needs met. We would have given so much more…

One day while at the kitchen sink washing dishes and cleaning up after a meal, I looked out the window and noticed the mother cat sitting at full attention at the edge of the yard in the wooded area waiting…waiting for the door to open…perhaps for a bowl of food, but no extra touch, no getting too close, just waiting for her selfish desire to be fulfilled. It was then that I had one of those “God moments” and his Holy Spirit spoke to me…about how much this cat is an example of how we can often respond to God! His heart broken, because He loved us so (John 3:16). He sent His only son Jesus, to pay the price for our sins! And if we accept Him into our life…open our hearts to Him…get close to Him…allow Him to come in and dwell…He has so much to offer us…so many blessings way beyond our needs…blessings beyond and for eternity! And what do we do? We settle for our own selfish desires to be fulfilled. We want our own way in life. We only allow God to be so close, and we miss all He has for us!

What about you, have you accepted that gift of eternal life that he has prepared just for you? Please today allow God the opportunity to show His love for you and bless your life. Don’t miss out on all He has for you…for today and for eternity! Enjoy the full blessings of life that are waiting just for you!

I guess you are wondering whatever became of our feline friends. Unfortunately, one kitten became sick and died. The mother became pregnant once again, and we were forced to take them all to the shelter in hopes they could have a home other than ours. Had their hearts been open to allowing us the opportunity to love and provide for them more, who knows they might still be at our home today?

And Jean’s wish came true! I’ve got to run, and yes…pick up food for the Cat…

Remember, don’t settle for less than He has to offer you, you’ll be missing the blessings…