Stella and her cave

So today was Stella's (our tiger-tabby cat) second try on a leash. Yesterday we put the harness and leash on her and took her outside to see if she would "walk." Sure, sure, a cat that has been inside for most of her life will take RIGHT to being confined in a pink corset-like contraption and walk willingly by our side, in a world full of new sounds, sights, and especially smells... Hey, it was worth a try!

She did not like it yesterday. At all. While on the grass, we had two little girls come up to us and want to pet her (which would have been fine if they had walked slowly up to her and not run, creating a full blown panic inside her I'm sure). I think this is what freaked her out the most. However, she did seem very interested in the scents being carried by the wind into her nostrils and looked around curiously (although still nervously) the whole time. Today, she seemed a tad bit more comfortable being in the fresh Colorado air. I think it helped that I just let her sit on our porch with some treats (she left them uneaten-- very uncharacteristic of her).

What I want to share, and what hit me hardest, is this: Immediately after coming back inside, she slinked into her "room" (the spare bathroom) and jumped up onto her scratching post/contraption and disappeared into the "cave" part of it. The kitty-mama part of my heart sank-- what did I just do to my babycat? Why did she feel she needed to hide away when all I wanted to do was to show her the wonderous outside world, which she had lived in quite happily the first two months of her kitten life?

It kinda reminds me of myself and God. He often brings me "outside", out of the "cave" of my everyday life, where I aptly ignore Him as I attend to all the things that don't involve Him. In my cave the air is stale and everything is "safe" and predictable. He wants to show me how wonderous it is to walk beside Him (without the pink leash, of course) in world full of inconcievably bright sunshine and new adventures, fresh air and fresh words from Him, to walk and talk with Him about everything going on inside my heart, even the things I've locked Him out of. Maybe I let Him take me out for a couple minutes, but soon I meow to get back into my comfortable and dark cave where I can get back to MY stuff, stuff that I don't always involve Him in.

It's a cycle. A little while outside walking with God in the fresh air, and then a lot more time doing MY thing all by myself, with the air growing stale and I not even noticing. Writing it down like this, it sounds quite silly of me.

I hope he comes knocking again soon, waiting for me to come for a walk with Him, inviting me to invite HIM into every part of my life.

The cool thing is-- He never stops asking. All I have to do is look up. He's always there. See you all later- I am going to go get my sneakers on.