Flippy

Molly was cute as a kitten; a little white fuzz ball mewing for attention.  Now, she’s overweight and kind of dirty-looking, and she stays in the dark recesses of her Grandpa-created cat condo most of the time.  Molly is not a big fan of movement.

Even though Fat Molly thinks she is a queen,I don’t think her IQ is super high.  One time, Grandpa installed a light bulb above her little house to give her more warmth in the winter.  Molly loved this added amenity so much that she rubbed her head against it constantly.  And then, when she did emerge from her abode (with great effort), we saw that she had burned all the fur off of her head right by her ear.

Molly is not very fun to hold because she is stiff and she wants to be held only one way—with her feet down.  Now, I like to hold cats like babies—with their feet up, but only Sandy and Sasha tolerate that. If you hold Molly this way, she quickly flips.  We call this being “flippy”.

Unlike Sasha, Molly is very loving if you choose to hold her feet down.  She will rub her partially furless head against your chin so hard that it hurts.  I guess that added weight gives her some added oomph too. Sometimes her loving becomes so violent she loses control and begins to bite you.  She gets the boot outside when that happens.

Sometimes I think Molly is depressed.  She spends most of her days in the dark, she forgets to bathe, and she wears the same sweatshirt for two weeks straight—oh wait—that’s me—Molly doesn’t wear clothes, and she eats way too much.

Molly is very imperfect, but guess what?  We love her anyway and she is part of our family.  We don’t love her more on days when she does a good job giving herself a bath and less on days when she’s dirty.  We still feed her everyday and give her water when she bites us. 

God loves us all the time too.  He doesn’t love us more when we read our Bible that day (although we learn to love Him more by doing that), or less when we lose our temper (although we reflect Him more by controlling it), He loves us the same ALL THE TIME.  He loves us because He created us and made us part of His family.  We are His.

I wish that Molly wasn’t so flippy.  I wish she would learn to relax in my arms when I hold her and not insist on feet down.  But she does.  That’s Molly. 

So Remember: 

GOD LOVES YOU

HE KNOWS THAT YOU’RE IMPERFECT

KEEP STRIVING TO BE LIKE HIM

and…LOOSEN UP AND LET HIM HOLD YOU.

He tends his flock like a shepherd:
   He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
   he gently leads those that have young.

Isaiah 40:11