The cat waits…
Watches…
Ready for his opportunity.
His opportunity to pounce?
To attack?
Not exactly…
He has lived in our house eight years.
He knows the routine.
My wife sits down…
Puts a blanket over her legs…
His opportunity has arrived.
He jumps…
Landing in her lap…
Begging to be petted…
And petted…
And petted…
And petted.
We call him our “needy” cat.
He never gets enough attention.
Never gets enough love.
After eight years…
You’d think he’d trust us…
Yet his trust is so fragile…
All my wife has to do is move her legs slightly…
Readjust the blanket…
And he is gone.
Retreating in fright to a high spot…
A spot where he is all alone…
A spot where he imagines himself safe…
“What a silly cat!” we say…
“After all these years, why does he only trust us sometimes?”
Why does he perceive a slight movement of legs…
A small rearrangement of a blanket…
As a threat?
“Good thing people are smarter than cats!” we think.
And yet…
When God rescued the people of Israel from Egypt…
When he physically lived in their midst…
Still they said, “In God we sometimes trust!”
…“If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” Exodus 16:3
It’s the same with us…
We rush to God…
Seeking his love…
But perceiving His slightest unexpected movement as a threat.
Retreating in fright…
Retreating to what we think is a safe place…
Trusting in ourselves instead of God
Making our motto…
In God we sometimes trust.
How rich our lives would be…
How much peace we would know…
If only we remembered…
“Your love is faithful, Lord, and even the clouds in the sky can depend upon you. Your decisions are always fair. They are firm like mountains, deep like the sea, and all people and animals are under your care. Your love is a treasure, and everyone finds shelter in the shadow of your wings.” Psalm 36:5-7
