Cats and God's Timing

Guidelines for Singleness, pt 2

I tend to learn through best through allegory, so God used my kitten to teach me something about my life as a single, His timing, and that it's ok (and important!) to trust Him.

Sometime around the end of November last year, I had a strong desire to get a new kitten. I wasn't sure where that impulse came from. I was working in a contract position, and I had just moved into my new apartment. I wasn't sure how either was going to work out. Would I stay in my job? Or my apartment, for that matter? How would I afford vet bills, or even take the cat to the vet? Or worse yet, would I find one that I liked? There were so many unknowns.

Yet I had this amazing peace about buying a kitten. I knew that things would work out no matter what, and the very thought of a new feline friend made me smile. Even with so many things unknown, I decided to trust in God and take the plunge.

Once I looked at the cats at Lollypop, one of the first kittens I met was Nellie. She was just a little ball of fuzz. She stood right up and looked at me in her cage, as if to say, "That's her! She's my owner!" But it couldn't possibly be that easy...could it? Surely there was more to it than that. More complications, more cats to meet.

I was escorted into the cattery, a room full of other cats, just in case. Some hid; some hissed; some merely walked away.

I felt at a loss as I walked back to the cages. The cattery cats came with little posters to recommend them. Some were "assistants" that would hop on the keyboard; some were cuddlers; some were shy, but sweet, but if those cats were in there I had no way of knowing it.

When I walked past the cages, I came across Nellie again. She was curled up fast asleep, back to me. She had given up.

My heart melted. "How about that cat?" I asked.

Once I met her, I just knew that she was my cat. Nelllie's not perfect - no cat is - but she's perfect for me. Every day I'm thankful that God has allowed me to be the caretaker of this beautiful creature.

It's been 9 years since I've been "ready" to own a cat. Each place I lived in either didn't allow cats as a rule, or had prohibitive pet costs. My hopes sunk with every move, and was unable to house my childhood cat. I began to believe I wasn't meant to ever own a cat, and that I should be content with birds.

After 5 months of being Nellie's proud cat-momma, I've learned that the only reason I didn't have a cat is that I had to wait for Nellie to be born. With every day I am convinced that no other cat would give me the joy that comes with Nellie's lovably spunky personality.

Waiting for Nellie is like waiting for romance. At times it can seem more like Waiting for Gedot: I never saw the opera, but I hear the guy never shows up. I'm learning to be content with the "birds" of my life God has blessed me with, for however long He chooses. I don't know what or who God has for me, but I do know I can trust Him.

Maybe, just maybe, it's just a matter of timing. Just like I had to wait for my kitten to be born, it could very well be that my special someone just isn't ready yet - or shock! Maybe I'm not ready for him either! I don't know how it works. If a writer of Proverbs couldn't figure it out, what chance do I have? I just know that there's a time for all things, and God knows when those times are.

I leave this post with some words from the Song of Solomon:

Oh, let me warn you, sisters in Jerusalem, by the gazelles, yes, by all the wild deer: Don't excite love, don't stir it up, until the time is ripe--and you're ready.