T. Wieland Allen
It's a complete marvel to me how God does what He does. I guess I'll never completely understand while I'm in this earth how He does things. My amazement is how He supplies the needs of everyone at the same times that He's providing what I need.
He's just too marvelous for the human mind to understand. I guess we should be glad for that because if we understood everything He does for us, then we would cease to be in awe of Him.
One of the fun parts of my week is mowing my big lawn. In addition to loving to mow and meditate while I'm mowing, I get the pleasure of talking to neighbors who pass by in cars who stop to comment on my yard or I get to talk to neighborhood walkers who are regulars in their healthful activities.
A neighbor told me one time that I must be German because only Germans sweep their streets, even the dirt ones. Sure enough, I told her that my father was German, to which I attribute my math expertise. Now every time I sweep the street in front of my house I think about that neighbor, pray for her, and think about my dad who passed many positive attributes on to me.
One day this week I was sweeping up the leaves from the pavement in front of my house when a lady came strolling up the hill to talk to me. Joan is a wonderful soul who helps lots of neighbors work wonders in their yards. On this occasion she complimented me on my yard and we talked about how great the tree is doing that she planted for us last year in early spring. I had bought the tree for my husband, who had always wanted a Wisteria tree, and Joan had planted it for us since my husband was in the middle of chemotherapy and was too weak to do the job. She had lovingly done the work for us. This spring the tree was aglow with beauty, covered with long purple blossoms. I was able to wheel my husband in a wheelchair to the window where he gazed upon its beauty. I'm so glad he got to see it in all its glory because he died a month later.
While I was sweeping up the leaves and grass clippings this week Joan asked me if I needed anything done since she and her husband were working in the neighborhood. As a matter of fact, I said, I was going to call her to set up some time that they could help me with chores that I'm not physically able to accomplish.
While we were talking, standing in the street close to my house, the stray cat that I feed came to join the confabulation, rubbing against my legs in her normal fashion. Joan asked me if Callie, who is a beautiful calico, is my cat. I told her the story about how I've fed the cat for six years but no one can pet her. We had surmised that she had been abused, because any time a hand comes toward her she ducks and moves quickly away.
Joan told me that she has a cat that was the same way. Then she told me how she won the trust of that cat. It seems that her stray had the same fear of humans. Joan fed the cat outside for a few weeks, then started in her repetitive gestures of showing the cat love until the cat could learn to trust her.
She continued putting food outside for the cat for a few weeks. Then she sat in a chair about ten feet from the food dish, just observing the cat, slowly and quietly adding some kind words as the next few weeks went by. Then she moved her chair closer to the cat's food dish, continuing to occasionally speak quiet, kind words.
The next step in Joan's saga with the cat was to move her chair closer and closer until the cat was comfortable with Joan's presence. That took a few more weeks. When Joan was close enough to touch the cat, she restrained herself, not wanting to cancel out the patient work she had already accomplished. Her next step was to change the presentation of the food. She didn't put the food in the dish but she placed a portion of the cat food in her hand and held it out to the cat. Sure enough, the cat cautiously strolled up to her, took the food and shied away, but the cat continued to come back and eat food from her hand. That happened for two or three days.
After Joan was convinced that the cat trusted her, she began to pet the cat on the head as the cat ate the food, only one or two pats at a time.
After two or three months of this slow engagement, Joan opened her door and put the food dish barely inside of the door. The cat gingerly walked in the door, cautiously gazing at the new surroundings, and ate from the dish. He seemed to keep one eye on Joan in this new adventure.
The next day the feeding dish was moved further into the room, and on and on until a solid trust was established between the cat and the human being.
Soon Joan was able to pet the cat for longer intervals without any trepidation from the animal. Joan became the trusted saviour of the animal. No one else could make contact with the cat because no one else had taken the time to establish the trust that the animal so desperately needed.
What a divine picture this is of God's love and His patience in wooing us, slowly and patiently holding His hand out to us in peace, willingly feeding us with His gentle words and heavenly food until we trust Him completely to be our protector, our peace, our provider, our shepherd, our constant help in time of need, our deliverer from danger, our healer and our loving Father.
What patience Joan had in winning the trust and love of the cat. No one else took the time to prove what love can do for the animal. What Joan did worked.
God sent Joan to me to tell me her cat story so that I can pass it on to you as an allegory of God's love for you and to encourage you to do the same thing for your friends, your relatives and strangers who have been abused by other humans. People are in search of someone they can trust just a little bit at a time. God's children must be willing to patiently and lovingly establish trust and love with others.
When we can all do that, then the family of God is truly demonstrated to be what it was meant to be, a family of love.
You've heard of the patience of Job. I like the patience of Joan just as well. It produced amazing results just like God's instructions to Job did when He told Job to forgive his friends. Everything was restored to Job.
Joan was patient, just like God impressed her to be, and her love and patience produced what it always does, good results. It won the heart of a stray, lost cat who desperately needed love and food.
God is love and love never fails.
No comments:
Post a Comment