Pastor's Page
JULY 2010
“He was a good cat.”
-Bobby McClaflin
After thirteen-plus years of being part of our family Midnight the cat finally succumbed to the inevitable. It’s always hard to lose a pet, and this was not easy on our family, especially Laura. This summer she has been through her share of physical trials, and this certainly didn’t help. But she put on a brave face, knew that she had done all she could, from the time that she saved him as a kitten, to the last time she gave him a good brushing. Theirs was a friendship for the ages.
Bobby, on the other hand, did not get off to the best of starts with the cat. Midnight was a good three years older than Bob, and they seemed to be at odds from Bobby’s birth. At an early age, Bobby had a question that he would ask time and time again. It was, “When Kitty is dead, can we get a dog?”
But time passed and there was a rapprochement by both parties, and in the end even Bobby could say with sincerity, “He was a good cat.” That is how relationships go. Sometimes we are good friends from day one. But for others it takes time. We need to take time to see the good in others around us. The first step is to let them be who they are. We couldn’t change them if we wanted to, and we can get frustrated trying to make a cat into a dog, or any transformation that we think would do the trick.
Bobby let the cat be the cat, and they learned to get along together. We all tend to have a hard time leaving things alone. We want people to change. We want friends to think like we do and act like we think they should. But if we are to be true friends we need to pray the words of the song that goes, “Help us accept each other as Christ accepted us.” If we start there then we have a chance to develop solid relationships with real people in our lives.
Life is short – shorter for cats – but not that much longer for us. In this journey through life it is up to us to share God’s love with our families, our friends, and our community of faith. We are a community of nurture – serving each other – sharing in each others lives – and being there for each others even in the hardest of times. We start by looking for the good in each other. We grow by encouraging others to develop their gifts, to use their talent, to share their leadership. We will be successful when we are willing to look past our differences, and to realize that God loves us all.
I’ll miss Mid. He was a good friend. But most of all I hope they can say the same thing about me when I’m gone. “E – he was a good cat!”
-- Pastor E