The tail of a lost cat
✨STORY TIME ✨
Luna is a nighttime menace and two nights ago I slept like a mother whose children and pets all decided to enter into the deepest of slumbers for 9 glorious hours. Miracles do happen but this was suspicious - what were the chances that two dogs, one cat, one baby, one toddler, and one little kid all slept peacefully through the night?
Well, well, well - at it turns out my moonwalker was indeed not sleeping peacefully - BUT MISSING!
This is no ordinary cat. I, a hater of cats, love this rascal. She’s eternally small, our forever kitten, and her personality is that of an unreasonably cute puppy. Daniel’s love for her is so great I often refer to her as the other woman in our life. It’s important to note that Daniel is in Honduras this week - and if any harm were to befall his cat, my sweet and even tempered husband would be crushed.
So, my mother spent all day looking for her to no avail. All of our evening activities were canceled due to a very ominous storm rolling into our wind tunnel of a valley, and in the few precious, fleeting moments before giant angry rain drops fell, the big girls and I wailed all over the neighborhood, screaming “LUNAAAAAA” at the top of our lungs. Have you ever seen a heartbroken blonde curly 4-year-old with giant tearfilled eyes? it’s unbearable.
Ever hunting for a teachable moment as any good rabbi imposter is - I chose to use this horrible scenario to teach the girls about intercessory prayer. And pray and pray and pray we did! With each clap of thunder - more tears! More prayers! Those wailing women have nothing on us Jackson girls.
The girls finally cried themselves to sleep. All night I tossed and turned at every creature noise, each time checking the door and surrendering her fate back to the Lord.
At 6:53 am (after sleeping in 1.27 hours past my alarm) a RAP, RAP, RAP hit the door. An angel in the form my kind neighbor was there, quickly grabbing the food bowl, and heralding “she’s found!!! She’s in my garage!” As she bounded back across our soaked yards.
I threw on a robe, rushed into the girls’ room and proclaimed our beloved was indeed ALIVE, and ran next store to scoop up our big adventurer and return her home after her feline trek to Mordor.
Here’s the thing:
The Little Girl prayed she would be safe and dry through the stormy night!
Big Girl said “in my heart God had told me she’s very close by.”
Safe and dry and in the neighbors yard is about as on the nose answered-to-prayer and learning-to-hear-the-Spirit as you can get!
It was the most beautiful reunion I’ve ever seen. Big Girl was crying and shouting “it’s miracle! It’s a miracle! God heard our prayers! It’s a miracle!” While squeezing so hard to Luna I thought she might Lennie her.
And yes, she could have been roadkill and sometimes that happens and we would have learned to sing “it is well” and trust God when prayers go unanswered.
BUT
Far be it from me to not try and teach big, bold, audacious, impossible trust in a very good Father who loves to answer prayers FIRST.
Also - if God cares so much to answer these prayers for these very tiny girls about this very pitiful little cat - how much more does he care about the big things?
