The Cat Came Back!

"The cat came back the very next day, we thought she was a goner but the cat came back....."

Our kitten Rosie, a cute little blue-eyed Siamese, went on quite an adventure this week! This adventure of hers taught all of us in our family some valuable lessons, and hopefully her as well! Before I get into the lessons we learned I am going to start with the story of Rosie's little adventure!

Tuesday afternoon I loaded Dexter, Bella, Mason, and Emme into the van to head into town so that we could pick up Anna and Cheyanne from school. We stopped at Auntie Renee's to drop off Dexter and Emme and then headed to Anchor Academy so that I could drop off a few things for work. We then continued our drive to Salmon Arm where we stopped at the Tim Horton's to get a treat before picking up Cheyanne and Anna. Once we were at the school I collected the girls and buckled everyone into their car seats and was about to pull out of the parking lot, when Mrs. Sigston, Cheyanne's teacher, frantically waved at me to stop. I quickly stopped and jumped out of the van asking her what was wrong. She then told me that there was a cute little Siamese kitten sitting under our vehicle. It turns out that Rosie had crawled into the under carriage of our van, and stayed there until we made it to Cheyanne's school, lucky cat! The problem was that Rosie had taken off from under our vehicle and gone somewhere into the bush or another vehicle. Soon Mrs. Sigston had a bunch of kids helping us look for Rosie, which I am sure frightened her even more, and she was very well hidden. There was a dad who had come to pick up his kids and he had all of the kids in the search party pray for Rosie, and promised that he would come back in the evening with his boys to look again for our little kitten. Cheyanne was blinking back tears as we told her that we had to go home without Rosie. Mrs. Sigston encouraged her to pray asking God to help us find her, and Anna also promised to pray for Rosie. This seemed to comfort Cheyanne and we left the school. The next day Mrs. Sigston phoned and the kitten still hadn't been found. I decided not to mention it to Cheyanne because she didn't seem to be too concerned, and I was afraid that bringing it up might make her sad all over again. Well, later that evening, I got a phone call from another teacher at Cheyanne's school, she had decided to try calling the kitten again when she was leaving the school just in case Rosie turned up. She said that when she called her, Rosie came out from the undercarriage of the Principal's van! This in itself is a little miracle because our kittens never come when they are called, they are outdoor fairly wild little kitties! I couldn't believe Rosie had been found, like the song says, "we thought she was a goner..."

The lessons that were learned from this experience, as trivial as it was, were very profound. I know that I have learned something that I have known my whole life, and yet I need to relearn it all the time because I loose touch, I forget, or I lack the faith of a child. Cheyanne learned that God answers prayer! In my mind I had been mentally preparing a conversation where I would be trying to explain to Cheyanne why our prayers don't always come true, and why God didn't bring her kitten back when she asked him to. Obviously I was lacking the faith that God was going to answer our prayers! Well, thankfully, I was wrong and that  is a conversation we will have another time! Cheyanne also learned that God cares about the things that we care about, and that when people pray he answers. She experienced the blessing of having her prayers answered and it was so neat for her to go to school the next day and have her teacher celebrate with her, and not just celebrating Rosie's return, but instead celebrating God's answer to prayer.

So what did I learn? I learned that God loves us, that we can trust him. I know this, and I see it in many places, but often I find myself waiting for God to bring some bad experience into my life, or I worry that we have things too good so something bad has to happen so that I can grow spiritually, or if I want this so badly then the opposite might happen. In reality, God loves us, he wants to bless us, we can trust him with what we care about. Sure difficult times come into our lives, and often we grow immensely through these experiences, but God also teaches us through everyday experiences. He shows us his love in the little things.  Thinking about Cheyanne's missing cat made me reflect on the verse "So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him?" (Matt 7:11) I love my kids, I want to keep them from hurting, but God, he loves them perfectly, so why do I doubt that he would take the time to help Cheyanne find her cat? If I would look for it for her, wouldn't the God who loves us perfectly do the same? He loves us enough to care about what we care about. I have been reminded of the question "Do I really believe that what I believe, is really real?" This question comes from the Truth Project, and I have been really challenged by it. If I really believe that what I believe is really real, why don't I have the faith of a child? I asked Cheyanne after we found her kitten, why she didn't seem worried about Rosie when she was still missing, her answer to me was this "because I know that God every time sees my cat and can protect it and bring it back to me," her answer literally stopped my thoughts, I was stunned, and embarrassed that here my five year old had to show me what faith looked like, and taught me that I can trust God with even the littlest details in my life for he has told us "I know the plans I have for you,... they are plans for good not for disaster..."(Jer 29:11). Do I really believe that what I believe is really real? Sadly, many times my actions say no. Faith, oh to have the faith of a child. My focus study for life right now has been grace, but this experience has encouraged me to add faith to that list as well.

As for Rosie, let's up she has learned to stay out of the van! We have given her and the other kittens a heat lamp in their house in hopes that it will encourage them to sleep in their home instead of the warm vehicle!