I’ve always loved animals, especially cats. There’s something about those big, bright eyes, that soft fur, and those expressive, endearing meows that just melt my heart. Whether you share my affections or not, I think God made something special when he created our feline friends.
I much as I love cats, I don’t plan on owning one due to limited time and finances. So when the three ladies I care for at a group home got their dearest wish, I was excited. One day a fish-shaped pet dish appeared in the kitchen. A couple of mornings later when I arrived at work, some rather demanding meows announced the presence of the home’s newest resident.
The ladies named him Charlie Brown, and I proceeded to fall in love with him. He tumbled head over paws for me as well. I’m the one who cuddles him, tussles with him, and fusses over him. Catster’s website says that cats are capable of producing about, “100 vocalizations, which they mix and match to talk to us because we can’t read their exquisitely expressive body language.” I think Charlie has mastered them all. Sometimes he seems to be saying, “Cheryllllll, I want you to come and play with me”
Charlie never fails to put a smile on my face. I want to reach out and love on him. And I don’t stop when he does naughty things like chewing on the living room rugs or jumping onto the dining room table to go after a stink bug on the chandelier light. And I love him even though he’s overweight (well–it’s not really his fault. The ladies feed him too much.)
Then I realized one day that my love for Charlie is in some ways, a parallel to God’s love for me.
I have always believed that God loves me but I have not always believed that he is pleased with me. I still struggle with the sense that I must try harder, be more obedient, and productive for the Kingdom. Only then will he be happier with me and I will move a rung or two higher on the ladder of spiritual success and maturity.
But God’s love is not like that. He knows and sees my selfishness, my self-righteousness, my bitterness, ingratitude, and complaining, my jealousy, and my judgmental, critical spirit. Yet he loves me anyway. Every time he looks at me, delight fills his huge heart. Oh yes, my ungodly behavior saddens him. He wants me to change and is constantly working to make me more like his son, Jesus. But nothing I do or neglect to do changes the incredible, incomprehensible, crazy intensity of his affection for me.
Ephesians 3:19 says that the love of Christ, “surpasses knowledge.” Our understanding of God is very limited. Charlie’s understanding is limited as well. All he knows is the world contained inside the four walls of the group home. (Well, he does escape to the basement when we inadvertently let the door open and once he meandered out into the garage.)
I don’t talk his language and he doesn’t talk mine. Yet one of the things I enjoy the most is when he is willing to sit on my lap and just be cuddled. So it is with God and his children. More than having us “serve” him, more than seeing us “be good,” he just wants to enjoy us, love us, and have us enjoy and love him back.
But at some point, the parallel between my love for Charlie and God’s love for the human race breaks down.
Though the thought makes my heart ache, I probably would not go back into the house to rescue the cat if the house were on fire. I also don’t always have time for him. I work at that house–and I’m not getting paid to play with a cat no matter how he begs me with those huge emerald eyes!
But someone did go back into a burning building for us–into the burning building of sin and the punishment that we deserved. He demonstrated his love in that he was willing to lay it all down for us through Jesus and his death on the cross. (Romans 5:8)
The Father always has time for me. It may feel like he is a million miles away, but he is actually closer than my next breath and so eager for me to come to him. Even if I have had a less than stellar performance (which is pretty much every day) his favorite thing is to spend time with me.
God speaks to us in many ways. His voice can be heard in the fabric of our everyday lives, in details so seemingly uneventful and ordinary that we often miss the message entirely. But if we learn to listen, we begin to see that God is not distant, unconcerned and uninvolved, but very much the opposite. He longs to be intimately involved with every hour, every situation, every decision. He is faithful, even in our darkest times and wants the best for us. If we can focus on that, we will be amazed at the constancy and beauty of his perfect, never failing love for us.
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