learning from the beasts

Not long ago, on a friend’s site, I made a very clear display of my enmity against felines. ( for the record, I’m actually quite fond of the domestic cat’s much larger cousins. At a distance.)

Ha ha. Silly me.

Just the other day, as I was staying up in the garage, the small feline came and sat next to me on my blanket. I rolled over, and being, as I suppose, in a state of late-night delirium, I actually and began stoking it. It was so nice as to alter its position for the sake of its own comfort, rather then lick my hand or do anything to show its humble appreciation.So much for kittens. But somehow, I wasn’t deterred from stroking it.

Well, in any case, that feline is a created thing. I couldn’t help remembering that whilst sharing my floorspace with it. We like to say, in songs and such, that creation sings God’s praises. Well, it’s true (though we don’t always hear it singing). Funny thing is, the cats don’t even know that there singing. Neither, for that matter, do the amoeba, the blue whales, the giraffes, the Komodo Dragons, (two of my personal favourites), or any other animals you can imagine.

So, in a way, Christians, and indeed, human beings in general, have been granted a distinct advantage over the beasts: we can know God is there in a more real way: we can think about Him in a way which they cannot (and no, I do not believe that they will evolve the trait anytime soon): we can even know Him personally, in a way that is infinitely more close than lying next to a pre-adolescent feline. Are we taking advantage of that?

So, even the creatures who to us seem lowest are singing the praises of their maker.  Not to brag or anything, but we humans are greatly above even the best in the kingdom (Animalia),even the lovely dolphins. And we’ve got voices to sing and speak His praises in what seems a deeper way.Why aren’t we?

Well, again, there’s the old problem of sin. It’s is the impediment that plagues all of us, even the beasts,(perhaps in a different way). But Christ has freed us, and He is even now working a second Creation in the hearts of His children. So, for Christians, and those whom He hasn’t yet brought in to the Kingdom (yet, though, I pray for you that He will), the only way that we can offer any praise that is better than that of the beasts is to come to Christ. May He draw us.

So, in contradistinction to my dislike of domesticated cats, I must offer that they, like dolphins, cockroaches, and all those other pleasant and seemingly unpleasant inhabitants of our planet that popular science has the audacity to call our relatives (“Oh no! I just stepped on my eighteen millionth cousin quadruple removed on his mothers side!”), we can learn a lot from them.

What I said was, We can learn a lot from cats. I’m not sure that run-on sentence made much sense.

Picture the unasked courtesy of Micaiah R. Davis photography. No rights reserved.

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