Kitten

We are about ready to move into the house we bought. We have been working on it every night for the last 2 weeks, and it is about done. But, Wednesday night we heard a strange sound, the meowing of a kitten underneath the shed next to the garage. Someone must have abandoned it on the roadside and it took up residence under the shed. It was meowing pitifully, but it would not let us get close to it.

It would hear us when we came outside, and would venture out from under the shed and start meowing, but if we started walking towards it, it would retreat back under the shed. I tried about 5-6 times to pick it up, but it always disappeared under the shed before I could retrieve it. Debbie was more patient than I, and last night she managed to get a hold of it. The poor thing is all skin, bones and fur; it must barely have been weened. And it stunk; it had poop all over the back half of it. Ever the merciful one, Debbie brought it into the kitchen (there's no furniture yet), put some dry cat food in a bowl and added water to soften it. The kitten started eating, but kept on meowing while it ate. It polished off the food in no time, still meowing endlessly. Debbie picked it up and cleaned it up some, although it still stunk, and started petting it. It started to purr. She put it down on the floor and it started to cry again.

Since she had work to do, she let it follow her around. While she was painting, it would get as close as it could and fall asleep for a little while, then wake up and cry some more until it realize she was still there, within reach.

While I don't spiritualize everything, this seemed like an obvious parable to me, especially the way the kitten ran away from us at first and was covered with poop. We are drawn to God, but we run away from Him. We know that it is better with Him, but we are afraid to leave the shelter of our poop infested hole in the ground. But, the Holy Spirit, Debbie in this case (it certainly wasn't I!), keeps on pursuing us; He catches us, feeds us, and cleans us up. He stays close to us, even when we wake up and don't see Him at first.

Oh, we put the kitten in the barn last night when we left, along with more food and water. There is straw there and a small cat door. I'm not as hopeful as Debbie that it will survive, but we'll see.