Escapee

With a sigh of memories, I just washed cat nose-prints off our living room window. For hours, barely balancing all 13 pounds of furry blob on the narrow windowsill, our cat would sit and contemplate the world outside.

Augie the gray tabby cat ran away Christmas morning. A determined outdoors guy, he’d had his fill of staying inside for the last three weeks while major battle wounds on his throat healed. For three weeks he’d endured a plastic “cone” on his head to keep him from scratching the wound that merited a $77 trip to the vet.

Thinking the cat was sound asleep in the corner, my husband came in the door with his arms full of wood for the fireplace. And the cat made his escape. Cone still on his head…..

We searched the neighborhood, but after five days of no cat in twenty-degree weather, it’s likely our eight and a half years of cat-care have ended.

I have a two-word conclusion: dumb cat.

As my husband remarked, “He knows where there’s a warm bed, water to drink, abundant food, and somebody ready to brush him. He made a choice.”

Maybe because he was a “rescued” cat (see the Nov. 9th blog on “The Cat of a Hundred Names”) I’ve thought of some life lessons from that. The Bible parallel that keeps coming to mind is Gomer from the book of Hosea.

No, this isn’t the “Gomer” of TV fame—the simple-minded, slack-jawed, wide-eyed gas station attendant from the “Andy Griffith Show.” This Gomer was a woman drawn to red lights, as in “immoral behavior.” By God’s command, Hosea married a harlot to illustrate Israel’s disobedience as a covenant people. Despite God’s love and miraculous care for the nation, it went after idols. Eventually, Hosea bought back his broken, wasted wife for half the going price for a slave (Hosea 3) and resumed taking care of her needs.

If you really think of Hosea’s overwhelming love, it grips your heart. And it should, because God loves us that much, and even more! Even when we pursue our own selfish agendas and end up in deep sorrow and trouble, He waits to take us back.

And so yes, we’re waiting for Augie, though it’s likely he became a coyote’s Christmas dinner or hunkered down somewhere and became a furry popsicle.

We still check the back door, thinking he might show up, still cone-headed and repentant for his impetuous escape.

But today I washed the old towels used for his bedding. I scrubbed out his eating bowls and tucked them in the container with too much uneaten cat food.

Pets come, pets go.

But one truth is certain—one I read in Psalm 103 this morning:
But from everlasting to everlasting
The Lord’s love is with those who fear him. (v. 17)

God never changes. He delights in us. And He will wait for us when we stray, loving us from afar and desiring to restore us to the joy of being His.

With New Year coming, that’s a comforting truth. No matter what we did in the past, God promises new beginnings, new hope, new purpose.

Home—enjoying God—is good.