For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.
Hebrews 12:6
I had wanted a kitten for forever. I remember when I was really little asking my mom if we could get a cat and she said no, namely because we had a cockatiel named Tweeter and cats and birds don’t mix well. I remember the day Tweeter died trying to look sad as I inquired if now that she had died, could we get a cat? The answer was still no.
Imagine then my delight when, at age 11, I discovered that the neighbor’s cat had kittens! There was just one problem—the cat had her kittens in the woods across the street and it was anyone’s guess where exactly these kittens were located. A few days after the kittens were born (momma cat had gotten considerably skinnier) we were on a family bike ride when we noticed momma heading into the woods. We stopped and watched as she disappeared behind a fallen tree. We hiked up the hillside and what did my wandering eyes behold, but five tiny baby kittens!
I think my mom knew as we carried the kittens down to the neighbor’s house that there was going to be no possible way to put off getting a cat for much longer. I basically lived at the neighbor’s house that summer, holding and playing with the kittens for hours a day. The neighbor had made a bed on her front porch for them and there was a slight slope between the porch and a covered pavilion that the kittens like to race back and forth between. One day my dad and I watched from the bottom of the slope as the only little black kitten raced up the hill and rolled on his back, batting and trying to get his mother to play with him as she was walking down the hill. They batted back and forth for a little bit before momma sat down and started licking her front paw—signaling that she was done. The kitten again rolled on his back and started swatting her front paw. She gave him a harder little swat as if to say, “No, I’m done. Go play with your brother.” Well, that little black kitten stood up, hissed, and did the curvy arched back thing that cats do when they are showing they have attitude.
Whack! Momma swatted him so hard that he rolled down the hill before he scampered off to the pavilion where his siblings were playing. That black cat would become our first cat and we named him Dickenz because boy, did he have an attitude and he sure could be a little dickens! To this day he was the sweetest cat I’ve ever had; he did have his moments of being bad! But he always came back to love us.
This reminds me of the story of David—I promise this is a compliment that I am comparing David to my cat! In the Bible, we hear a lot about David—like a lot! He was labeled by God as a man after God’s own heart. Such praise! But David was just a man, an imperfect one at that. David sinned, he committed adultery, and murder, but when confronted David was quick to repent and turn back to God.
Still, there were consequences for his sin. The first child David conceived with Bathsheba would die. God would ultimately bless them with another son, but David would have to pay for his sins. He would have to be disciplined by God for his sin in order to know true communion with God.
Being disciplined is never fun. I hated hearing that word growing up. But just as it was necessary for the momma cat to discipline her kittens, so it is necessary for God to discipline us—so that we can have the relationship with Him that He craves for us to have.
Disclosure
Please remember that this post contains affiliate links; that means if you click on the link, I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you. It’s a way to support my blog! I will only ever share an affiliate link if I love the product and think that you just might love it too!