Purring in God's Ears

Many people feel God is far removed from hearing or seeing their circumstances and He is not concerned about them. Such feelings or impressions are natural but totally contrary to what the Bible teaches in Luke's gospel.Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? And yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Indeed the very hairs of your head are all numbered.Do not fear; you are of more value than many sparrows. (Luke 12:6-7 NASB)Thus, God knows the exact number of hairs on our head, even though that count changes every day or two. So we can be confident God is not distant, but very close to us. He is waiting for us to turn to Him and trust Him with everything.Even feral (wild) or dumped cats have some of those same feelings. They struggle to survive in whatever territory they find themselves. In some parks near where I live, there were a number of feral cats. For years they had lived off the scraps on picnic tables and trashcans. But their world turned topsy-turvy when commercialization changes took place. A restaurant opened up and the nearby marina was remodeled, resulting in less food available around picnic areas. Those beautiful and resilient cats were slowly starving to death.As I observed the struggles of these feral cats on my prayer walks, I realized I couldn't change some difficult circumstances that my family was going through; but I could do something to help these cats. When I got involved in caring and rescuing the cats, a miraculous realization occurred. First Kings, chapter seventeen, describes a drought that had come on the land of Israel and how God provided for the prophet Elijah during that difficult time. God's provision of water was from the brook Cherith, and God's provision of bread and meat was from the ravens, twice a day. The divine realization in my soul was that I was experiencing my own drought in my heart. I realized I had some misconceptions about God and His ways. God used the cats I was caring for to care for me in this difficult time just as He used the ravens with Elijah. I felt as though the feral cats ministered to me more than I helped them.As I became acquainted with each cat, their unique purr, and their special story that covers many years, I was inspired to write about them. Bible truths and principles that adults and children could identify with became obvious so I knew I must capture them on paper. Each true story is related briefly without a lot of needless detail so the reader can identify and understand the unique biblical perspectives and principles throughout the book. The story is always told from the perspective of a cat. Biblical references are not used in the stories, but they can be found in the prologue. In addition, there are colorful illustrations of the actual cats drawn by Jeanne Mack (www.jeanmackart.com) capturing the unique essence of each cat's personality. Special thanks to Jeanne for her passion for cats and her God-given abilities for painting them.The overall intent of this book is to encourage individuals that God never wastes time or our experiences. Everything that has happened to us throughout our entire life is for our good and the good of others. God promises to work out every situation, good or bad, for our benefit and His honor and glory (Romans 8:28).