BC, GC & Freckles

Let me tell you about a friend of mine. Several years ago, a little black stray cat showed up in our yard. She was really sick, very weak. She wouldn't let us get too close, but we provided her with food and water for a few days until she felt better. She rewarded us a few days later by moving her 3 kittens into our barn. A couple of days later, she was run over and killed just up the road. We gave the kittens food & water. We placed the food dish on a platform in the barn where we keep our hay. They would scrample up on top of a chicken-wire cage that sat next to the table, but wouldn't come close to us. They'd wait at the back edge of the platform by the wall till we fixed their bowls and moved away before scurrying over to eat.

They were strays, and we refused to consider them pets, but over time, felt we needed to distinguish between them when we talked about them. One was mostly black, one was grey, and one was black with large brown spots. Hence, black cat (shortened to BC), gray cat (GC) and freckles. We didn't feel we could take them in as pets - we already had 2 indoor cats and 2 dogs. And strays don't have a great life expectancy. In a semi-rural neighborhood like ours, beside the danger of cars, there are dogs that sometimes roam the neighborhood, owls, and occasionally coyotes.

Freckles was the 1st to wander off. We're not really sure when or why. He just quit coming around. A few months later, it became obvious that GC also stood for girl cat, as local toms suddenly started hanging around. Within a couple of months she had kittens in our barn. About a week later, she moved them out of the barn - we never knew where. About a week after that, she quit going back & forth to her new den - apparently the kittens didn't survive. A couple of days later, I saw BC & GC sitting in the pasture. They were looking around and back & forth at each other - looking totally like they were carrying on a conversation. Then GC got up and walked away. BC sat there and watched her leave, never to return.

After that, BC tended to follow us around more. He seemed lonely and desiring companionship, but he still wouldn't let anyone near him. I felt sorry for him. Still, he was a "stray," not a pet. When I fed him, I began standing right by the table until his hunger forced him to venture over to his bowl in spite of my presence. Then I'd walk away. Eventually, I began to reach out toward him. As soon as he began to duck away, I'd turn and walk off. I'd push it right to the edge of his comfort level, and then remove the perceived threat. Over time, I actually touched his head. Same thing - when he flinched, I'd walk off. Then I would add a brief stroke to the process. He'd tolerate it for a few moments, then start to pull back. I'd walk off. In time, a good head rub before he began to eat became part of the morning routine.

Soon, he'd sit on the back fence in the morning while I topped off the horse trough & filled a couple of jugs of water to carry out to the stall. I'd prop my hand on the fence and he'd nudge it until I petted him. He'd follow Trish & me, around the yard when we were outside, but he still would not come near us, except in the barn, and on the back fence early in the morning. Those were the two "safe" places for him.

After filling the water jugs, I'd go get the muck bucket from near the compost bins to clean the horse stall. He'd follow me, and eventually, the compost bins became the 3rd safe place where he'd let me pet him. From there, we'd walk across the pasture to the barn. I'd speak to him, he'd meow back, and we'd "converse" all the way to the barn. If he wasn't waiting for me when I went out to feed the horse, I could call, "BC!", and he'd soon come running.

It took almost two years to get BC to the point that I could just reach out to him and speak to him, and he'd walk up and let me pet him - any time, any place. A couple of times when I was working in the yard and sat down to rest, he actually crawled up on my lap for a couple of minutes. Stopping to pet him while I was working outside, giving that once fearful little kitten a head rub and hearing him purr, was as refreshing to me as a drink of water. Trish could pet him occasionally. Our kids could pet him when they were feeding him. But he pretty much kept his distance from anyone but me or Trish, and mostly just me. We were friends.

About 6 months later, Trish called me late in the afternoon. As she was returning home from work she saw a black cat lying by the road at the end of our street and thought it was BC. I hurried home and found that it was. He'd been hit by a car several hours before. Probably was the reason he'd not come when I called him for breakfast that morning.

I did pretty good up to the point while I was burying him and thinking back over our time together. When I remembered thinking of him as my refreshing "drink of water," I couldn't help but weep.

I was surprised at how much his death affected me. It still affects me. We worked in the pasture today, and I kept thinking about BC. When we came in, I got out my journal and read what I'd written the day after he died, and my eyes teared up, and my throat tightened up. Ridiculous. After all, he was "just a stray." He never was really "our" cat. I knew from the start his odds weren't good. But I had poured a lot of time and effort into gaining his trust, just so this little stray could have the pleasure of receiving a good head rub every now & again.

God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. How much more must God grieve over us when we hold back, when we only allow him into certain "safe" places in our lives, when we roam the neighborhood and won't abide in Him, risking our lives just because we're free to do so. He is so patient with us. It's His kindness that leads us to repentance. It's His relentless tenderness that gives us time to allow us to develop trust to deeper levels. How it must make Him grieve that we do not understand and embrace how totally trustworthy He is. Why don't we run to Him to receive the love He offers, and passionately embrace Him and love Him back? This is where we begin - knowing Him.

The Nature of Evil

When Vladimir Putin was asked what he thought when Ronald Reagan referred to the Soviet Union as an "evil empire," he said he wasn't bothered by it. He said it was just a way of speaking about an enemy, basically, just rhetoric, and nothing truly offensives.

He was then asked if he thought the same about George Bush referring to Osama bin Ladin as evil. Putin's response was "No. That was mild language. The Muslim extremists truly are evil, because we are but dust to them."

Wow. "We are but dust to them." What an accurate and succinct definition of evil. To look at man as nothing more than dust, and hence of virtually no value is a valid depiction of evil. Satan himself sees man as no more than dust, and he brings evil into the world by devaluing man.

What you value, you cherish and protect. You don't destroy. You don't diminish it.

By way of example, this is the evil of the "theory of evolution." Granted there is scientific evidence for development and change within species over time. But to take it back to some primordial soup, or even to random atoms and molecules that were somehow charged into life by some random "bang," reduces man to dust, and relegates moral values to a system of situationally based social mores. Man has no real value other than what society places on him, and that can change from society to society, culture to culture, and time to time. This is where "situation ethics" and the "if-it-feels-good-do-it" philosophy of the 60's (which have stuck with us in varying forms and degrees ever since) came from. If there is no God, there are no absolutes - or at least no moral basis for absolutes - everything is based on chemical or electronic nerve impulses.

Is this about "creationism" or a "young earth?" No. This is about evil. This is about the basis for placing a value on man that is greater than dust.

Theft is evil because it sees man as no more than dust.
Adultery is evil because it sees man as no more than dust.
Murder is evil because it sees man as no more than dust.
Terrorism is evil because it sees man as no more than dust.

God is the opposite. God took dust, shaped it, stooped down and breathed into it the breath of life, and created man.