Cats

Cats 

The lions roar for their prey,

And seek their food from God.

The sun rises and they steal away,

They return and lie down in their dens.

Psalm 104:21 

I love cats.  Big cats, little cats, tame cats, wild cats - there is nothing in the world quite so beautiful as a cat.  All cats have flexible bodies, quick reflexes, sharp retractable claws, and teeth for killing small (or large) prey.  Not only can cats hear sounds too faint for human ears, they can also hear sounds higher in frequency than humans can perceive.  Cats are adept at both seeing in near darkness and (almost) always landing on their feet.

My first cat as a child was a kitten machine named Susie.  I have no idea how many batches of babies she had when I was a kid, but there were a lot of them.  I have shared a home with a giant cat named Chubbs, a flat-faced, snow white Persian, a female cat named George, a large, tiger striped male named Boopie, and a very talkative Siamese.

The cat in the photograph above is a young tiger who lives on Tiger Mountain in the Bronx Zoo in New York.  There were six or seven tigers lazing around on the day I visited, but this fellow decided he had slept enough and between splashing/swimming/nose diving in the pond and harassing his dozing buddies, he put on a real show for everyone on the other side of the protective glass.  

God’s creation always amazes me – not only for its beauty, but for its color and variety.  God could have made just one species of cat, but instead, he filled the earth with lions, tigers, cheetahs, lynx, leopards, cougars, ocelots, bobcats, and jaguars, to name a few.  I have loved my various house cats, but I look forward to the day when the heavens and the earth will be recreated, and I won’t need a piece of safety glass protecting me from those big, beautiful cats.

*

On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand and cast a wistful eye

To Canaan’s fair and happy land, where my possessions lie.

I am bound for the promised land,

I am bound for the promised land.

Oh, who will come and go with me,

I am bound for the promised land.

The United Methodist Hymnal, No. 724