Cats and Dogs

A king can see a cat but a cat can never see a king.

This famous saying refers to the issue of perception: the cat sees a king but not as a king, the king sees the cat as a cat.

Dogs don't see kings either though they have no proverbial saying to say so.  I heard a preacher refer to his dog as a ministering angel.  He had been in a time of quite deep despair in which nobody he felt understood him.  Except his dog.  It, he said, looked at him and ministered to him as others couldn't.

Preachers think too hard sometimes.  Instead of seeing the proverb in the dog he saw an angel there.  The despairer saw the dog but the dog did not see the despairer. 

But this is not the good news.  The good news is that the One who loves us best sees us the most clearly!  God demonstrates his love for us in this, that while we were sinners Christ died for us.  He knows me and he loves me.

Claimed

I read this week of a family pet from my home town.

The family had a monster of a tortoise that lived free-range in the family back garden. Not being content with having the whole outside grass and shrubs at his disposal, he often decided to do a Steve McQueen and pull off daring escapes. OK, there were no motorbikes or wooden vaulting horses involved, he simply burrowed under the panel fences and (in some cases) made it four houses down. Upon the third ‘prison break’, the family decided drastic action was needed to avoid losing him forever. They took a brush to his shell and painted their full home address for all to see on his back. Upon personalising that tortoise, they made an oath that it was theirs for life - for all to see.

It's amazing that God does the same with his people,

See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands (Isaiah 49:16)