Gilbert....

This past year my cat Gilbert has had a growing interest in playing outside. Gilbert is not an outside cat. He's a pure-bred Ragdoll with long, white, fluffy furr! Anyways, this summer I would take him outside for 10 minutes or so but keep an eye on him (he's the cat version of houdini..no joke). Since I started college this fall, my mom has gotten in the habit of just letting him out for an hour here and there with no supervision. No problem, she taught him to come back when we call him in return for a piece of bologna.

Well, our dog Franklin has recently found out how to break through the screen door of our patio. So, the past few times my parents have left for the evening, they come home to find both the cat and dog outside. Saturday afternoon we found the dog and the cat in the front yard yet again, and Gilbert was covered in burrs from the woods.

I'm not talking a few small burrs. I'm talking..no exaggeration..probably 15-20 burrs spread over is belly, back, and gorgeous tail. I tried brushing them out with no luck. I tried cutting them out, but he wouldn't sit still. So, I went to our church's Harvest Dinner thinking my mom could help me hold him down when we got home.

Bad idea... When we got home, Gilbert had his tail velcroed to his stomache between his legs! He also had a green sock stuck to his belly! And..he was unable to move because he was sticking to the carpet!

At first thinking it was a silly predicament we started pulling him off the carpet and detaching the sock from his tummy. But we noticed the usualy frisky and animated Gilbert was sitting pretty limp allowing us to clean him up. His ears were down, not the way they get when cats get mad but in a sad way. Every few minutes he would wiggle away, but he would always come back for us to clip a few more pieces out. By the end of the night, his beautiful, long, white, fluffy coat was a patchy mess. He was clean! But he was looking a little beat up..

My mom made a comment about how the whole thing made her think of how we look when we're bogged down in our sin. And I think she's totally right!

The way Gil looked stuck to the carpet was probably exactly what God sees when he watches us caught in sin. I'm so thankful I have Him to pick me up and clip the burrs out my hair when I finally go to Him and confess! When He's done, we probably look patchy too, but just like Gil's furr that will eventually grow back, ours will too.

The whole thing really opened my eyes to God's grace. The entire time my mom and I were snipping the burrs our of Gil's hair, I wanted to cry. He really is a beautiful cat. I kept yelling at my mom for leaving the door open. And as Gil looked at me with those little pathetic blue eyes, I sternly told him that it was his fault for rolling in the burrs. I told him that he did it to himself.

I'm SO glad that isn't what God says as He cleans us up!

The next day when I saw Gil looking all patchy, I just laughed. I just wonder what God thinks when He watches us walk around like that!

1 John 3:1a
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!