Warrior Ears

At right, our cat Augie, waking up from a nap.

Do cats have redeeming value? I sometimes ask myself that about our family feline, Augie. For one thing, we can’t get through his peach-pit brain the truth that fights are dumb. Our lectures go in his warrior’s serrated ears to oblivion. So much for having an alpha male, despite the “vet fix.”

Instead, it seems that one byproduct of his presence in our family is to teach me a thing or two. It probably doesn’t surprise you that about twenty years ago somebody actually wrote a book about “All I Need to Know I Learned from My Cat.”

I was reminded of his conqueror’s complex the other morning as I sat in the rocker, Bible open. It was a peaceful, purposed morning with the cat curled up in his bed beside me, presumably dreaming of cat treats dropping from the sky.

Then I heard it: that soft cross between a chirp and haughty get-me-if-you-can, vibrating through our house walls. I looked down and saw Augie had popped awake, his ears turned toward the sound. Away to the window I flew like a flash, shoved it open and hissed while one of the notorious neighborhood feline fighters leapt over the fence.

This time it was Ivan the Terrible, my name for the scruffy orange one whose eyes gleam hate. Other times the calls to war come from Al Capone (the black tuxedoed cat-criminal) or Ho Chi Minh (for the local Siamese). There’s also Diablo (again, my tag for it), the exploding mass of gray who regularly slinks into our yard in search of violent entertainment.

They all ought to be named “Diablo” (“the devil”), as far as I’m concerned. In some ways their diabolical exploits remind me of this passage: “That enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring [in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour” (1 Peter 5:8, Amplified).

For all the problems I have with so-called domesticated cats, I can’t begin to imagine the terror of a lion. But it’s a profound image of one of the ways Satan poses. Bible teacher William MacDonald (1917-2007) pointed out that the devil sometimes comes like a snake, luring people into sin (as in moral corruption among religious leaders). Other times he is an angel of light, seeking to deceive people with what “seems” right or what the “majority” approves.

As a lion he seeks to terrorize believers throughout the world. His battle lines are vast. To remind me of that (and to pray) I have posted on the wall opposite my desk a large map of the world from “Voice of the Martyrs,” with nations color-coded for those that restrict activities of Christians or are openly hostile to believers.

So how did I get here from our cat? Maybe that God uses even life’s ordinary events (like “cat”-astrophic confrontations in the back yard) to remind us of His bigger picture.