The most unexpected things happen when I am quite sure I have my life nice, quiet and orderly.

 

Just when I think, I can resume my orderly and leisurely Doctor Watson routines, something comes along to “upset the apple basket” of our life together (Rev. Judy Stanley and myself who’ve shared our ministry for some six years) and Easter weekend was no exception.

Coming home from a busy day of Holy Week activities, we found a stray kitten had deliberately and purposefully invaded our tranquil home. This pint-size, stripped miniature grey-tiger kitty, was holding the other two cats, Peace and Samuel, at bay and making sounds that said, “I am hungry, and homeless, I am weak and weary and wet. Do you not have room for me in your shed, perhaps?”

Well, this was between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, and I had the words of our Savior as he spoke those haunting words to his disciples like nails pounding into His Cross, those words pounded in my head “…for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me….” (Mt. 25: 35).

Well, I did not warm up to this stranger but Rev. Judy kept feeding him, not much more than a wide striped tail really, as she escorted it out to the front yard with futile hopes that he might wander back from whence he came. No such luck, he stayed by the rhododendron and every day his meows would wake the dead!

After many calls to neighbors and pet half-way houses and shelters, “Cozy” (for James Cozzens, American author) cozied into our lives and uncozied them for the time being. He became for us sign of the Resurrection, proof that there’s room in our hearts to love and care for one another as Christ our Savior showed us the way. I guess I will have to make room for him, but he’s not eating out of my bowl. No! Never! Not That! Well, maybe next month?

In Christ,
Rev. Dr. Watson

 

Nature is to be found in her entirety nowhere more than in her smallest cratures.
... Pliny