The Prodigal Cat (07/20/2025)

My oldest daughter has a cat that she named Gertie. Gertie came to her as tiny kitten. My daughter’s friend found her wandering about the farm. When she gave the kitten to my daughter, she warned her that she was feral, wild by nature. Gertie hasn’t disappointed. She is a bit wild, but oh, so precious.

This week, when my daughter was cleaning her house, she opened the door to take out some trash, and Gertie whisked right past her. Before my daughter could respond, Gertie had disappeared. My daughter called for her, but she didn’t reappear.

My daughter lives out in the country where there are wild animals that prowl about as well as other larger wild animals and several feral cats. My daughter worried about Gertie, and several times a day, for two days, she went outside and called for Gertie. But there was no sign of the lost cat. Then last evening about 8:45 Gertie reappeared and wanted to come home, into the house. My daughter says that Gertie was very communicative upon her return, as if she was trying to tell her human mother all about her adventures.

As I wound up my day, I thanked the LORD for Gertie’s safe return. She is a precious but oh so naughty cat. This isn’t the first time she’s slipped past my daughter, but it was the longest she’d been gone. I thought of my daughter’s friend warning my daughter that the kitten was feral – wild by nature. And I thought of myself and with a bit of guilt had to smile, I think I might be “feral” myself – wild by nature. I know that often throughout my life I have tried to skirt past the protecting love of my LORD. I know that there have been periods of time when I didn’t respond to my LORD’s loving voice calling to me to come back, to come home.

Thankfully, I have come to my senses. I am trying to allow the LORD to domesticate me. But I must admit, although I know the LORD is well aware of it, there is still a bit of a wild strand in me. It’s not that the temptation to make a dash now and then doesn’t come, it’s that I’ve learned that life with the LORD exceeds what I can find out there on my own.

The LORD our God gave us free will, the option to choose life in, with, and through Him or life on our own. While there are thrills to be had beyond the LORD’s desires for us, they won’t last nor fulfill as time spent in the love of our LORD. I think most of us have a prodigal or feral gene within us that considers choosing that which takes us away from the LORD. May we find with each day an increased awareness of the goodness that is possible only in the loving presence of our LORD.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.