Pumpernickel, the cat, has been with us for almost a year and a half now. She is nearly sixteen months old and has finally moved out of her kitten stage and into the early stages of the cat she will become.
She knows I keep a container of kitty treats on my desk, and every so often during the day, she will lightly jump up on my desk to ask for a snack. It is amazing how cats seem to defy gravity when they set their sights on a destination above, sometimes way above, their heads.
And so it was one day that Pumpernickel—that sweet, loving, intelligent cat—did one of her floating jumps up to my desktop, landing lightly beside my keyboard. She settled patiently on her haunches and fixed me with that “Papa, may I have a treat, please?” stare.
I was reading off my computer monitor at that moment. So, without taking my eyes off the screen, I absent-mindedly reached over to the kitty-treat container, snapped open the top, and fished out a treat. Sliding the little snack into the palm of my hand, as I always did, and while still reading off the computer, I held out my hand to my precious little Pumpernickel. Whereupon said precious Pumpernickel happily emptied the contents of her stomach into my hand.
Fortunately, it wasn’t much. And equally fortuitous, I have a relatively low gag reflex. Still, it was touch-and-go there with my own stomach for a minute.
Pumpernickel looked at what she had done and then at me with those big green eyes that distinctly said, “Oops, that wasn’t supposed to happen.” With a long-suffering sigh, I cleaned and washed my hand, stroked her for a minute to tell her it was okay, and fished out another treat.
The Word tells us after our Lord freed the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, even as they basked in the glow of their new freedom, they wasted no time diving into ugly, ungrateful disobedience. Ten times we are told, before they even got a good start toward the Promised Land, they revolted. Accounts of ungrateful disobedience to our Lord fill the Bible from beginning to end, from Adam and Eve to Revelation.
Then there are my personal “Oops” moments in my walk with the Lord. Those things that only He and I know about that must smell like vomit to Him. And yet He forgives me.
How incredibly deep and everlasting must our Lord’s love be to still call us His children after all that? Thank you, Father, for your incredible love and forgiveness.
Take some time daily to thank your heavenly Father for every good and perfect gift.
(Photo courtesy of pixabay and TeamK.)
Kevin Spencer likes to play with words, help others play with them, and is privileged to be a staff writer for Christian Devotions. He lives with his beautiful blessing of a wife, Charlotte, and his amazing collegiate grandson, Caleb.