Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The Pastor and the Kitten

Dwight Nelson recently told a true story about a pastor. He had a
kitten that climbed up a tree in his backyard and then was afraid to
come down.

The pastor coaxed, offered warm milk, etc. The kitty would not come
down. The tree was not sturdy enough to climb, so the pastor decided
that if he tied a rope to his car and drove away so that the tree
bent down, he could then reach up and get the kitten. He did all
this, checking his progress in the car frequently, then figured if he
went just a little bit further, the tree would be bent sufficiently
for him to reach the kitten. But as he moved a little further
forward....the rope broke. The tree went "boing!" and the kitten
instantly sailed through the air-out of sight. The pastor felt
terrible.

He walked all over the neighborhood asking people if they'd seen a
little kitten. No, nobody had seen a stray kitten. So he
prayed, "Lord, I just commit this kitten to Your keeping," and went
on about his business.

A few days later he was at the grocery store, and met one of his
church members. He happened to look into her shopping cart and was
amazed to see cat food. Now this woman was a cat hater and everyone
knew it, so he asked her, "Why are you buying cat food when you hate
cats so much?"

She replied, "You won't believe this," and told him how her little
girl had been begging her for a cat, but she kept refusing. Then a
few days before, the child had begged again, so the mom finally told
her little girl, "Well, if God gives you a cat, I'll let you keep
it."

She told the pastor, "I watched my child go out in the yard, get on
her knees, and ask God for a cat. And really, Pastor, you won't
believe this, but I saw it with my own eyes. A kitten suddenly came
flying out of the blue sky, with its paws spread out, and landed
right in front of her."