Recently the eyes of sadness stared me down through the metal bars of the live trap on our back patio.
We’d been having problems with this wild orange tabby. A few weeks ago he started coming into our house when we were gone, marking his territory and terrorizing our cats (evidenced by masses of orange fur scattered throughout our living room). Hardly a tolerable situation! The last straw before the cat trap happened a few nights ago. My husband was up late working when he heard the cat door open. Certain that our cats were in for the night, he turned to see a fuzzy orange head skitter through the kitchen. Our newfound vagabond was getting braver by the day! There was only one course of action—a trip to the country with the cat in tow.
I have often thought about the plight of homeless cats, which is why I was hesitant to trap him. These cats come into the world with no human love or interaction to tame them into pets. They are rejected solely on account of what their life circumstances have made them to be, which they had no choice about. But deep inside each one is a little kitten who wants to be loved and cuddled, who wants to be taken home to love, food, and security.
Perhaps my love for homeless cats is born out of the same deep compassion I have for those who cannot help themselves out of the gutter of life—especially homeless children—who do not understand how they got there in the first place.
I took the cat into the country where there were lots of barns and lots of mice. But as I prepared to let him out of the cage, our eyes locked, and I saw fear. For a brief moment, I felt his pain. His sadness became my sadness. His loss of dreams became my loss of dreams. His longing to be set free from the bondage of the curse of sin was felt in the deepest place of my heart.
For the rest of the day, all I could think about is how much I desire the day when all creation is finally set free from it’s groaning, when there will be no more sadness or tears.
And for now, I hope God gives a special grace to the orange kitty as he makes his way into a new life in the country.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. Rom. 8:20-22