The Stuck Cat And Our Salvation
We knew our neighbor had lost her cat and how much that pet meant to her.
So when we heard a faint meow outside our house, my wife and I went to investigate, even though it was pouring rain. Twice we failed to find where that plea of distress was coming from. On our third trek into the cold and rain, however, we finally spotted the cat on a ledge under the second floor of our house. We tried leaning out a window, but couldn't reach her. We tried standing on a barrel, but couldn't quite get to her.
Finally we found a ladder that enabled me to reach her at a stretch. I grabbed her and carried her down, while trying to persuade her not to dig her claws into her rescuer. I did escape unscathed, and we reunited cat and owner. Everyone was happy. The whole incident had taken about 45 minutes.
It occurred to me afterward to think about the incident in relation to humankind's need for salvation. We might wonder at times if God can really be bothered to save us from our transgressions, from sickness, and from dying. Or we might question whether we are worthy of the creator's saving grace. We might even ask if God knows how to rescue us when we've got ourselves stuck in the mire.
I found some insights and answers to these questions in our own approach to helping the stuck cat. First of all, it never occurred to us to give up on the poor creature. We persisted until we had rescued it. Nor did we weigh up the task in the light of the cold and rain. Nor did we ponder the animal's worthiness to determine if it was deserving of our efforts. It just felt right to do whatever it took to get that cat home and comfortable, back in its right place.
Well if that's the nature of two people being neighborly, how much more must it be God's very nature to save humanity from untoward circumstances. If we feel stuck in a morass of sickness or sin, we can think how we're infinitely more precious to God - who is infinite Love - than that cat was to my wife and me. God will rescue us, redeem us, save us, because it's God's nature to do so. Divine Love cannot, would not, do otherwise.
There is nothing that is not within God's power to do, since God is omnipotence, all-power. No situation we find ourselves in is too hard for His intelligence and authority to disentangle. Our part is to turn to Him humbly, trust Him, and follow His direction.
The healing Jesus Christ effected was perhaps earth's most profound example of divine power. Jesus proved God's love for us time and time again. No circumstance fazed the Christian Saviour. He knew that God's child - all of us! - can never face a situation where God does not provide a freeing solution. When an angry crowd tried to kill him, his prayer brought him right through the mob and into safety (see Luke 4:28-30). When a group threatened to stone a woman to death, Jesus found words to dissuade them by appealing to their own conscience (see John 8:1-11).
He proved that God, the divine Mind, was and is sufficient to keep us safe in all circumstances. Not human power but the might of spiritual understanding keeps us safe.
Looking at the deeper picture, we see that Jesus was proving in his own life that the divine Principle creates a perfect universe; that the true identity of all of us, as God's idea, is perfect. "Man as God's idea is already saved with an everlasting salvation," says "Miscellaneous Writings," a book by Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered in the teaching of Jesus a Science that heals through all time (Pg. 261). You could say that salvation is the realization that we are each that perfect idea right now.
Even the stuck cat was loved by God. That spiritual truth moved my wife and me to take action. This was a small example of how God's love is made practical in our own lives.
God will rescue you, too, even from the most impossible place. Listen for His direction, strive to follow it, and trust yourself to His salvation!
