The Kitten, The Lion and Me…

Recently my family adopted a small kitten.
We thought it would be good for our eight year old twins.
By that I mean we made the mistake of driving past a pet store, and then walking by the little kitty jails they have at those establishments…and the rest as they say, is history.

So we now have this newly adopted kitten in our home.  
He is a wild and crazy kitten, I suspect like most kittens his age.
Recently he has taken to attacking our legs as we walk by, and in the morning it is now routine for him to perch in an opened, yet screened in, window and maliciously listen to the birds chirping in the nearby trees.  This kitten is domesticated, yet there is still a wildness about him.  He would most likely attack, kill and consume a bird if opportunity were to strike in his favor.  It is in his nature to be this way – with claws flared and crouched in a stance ready to pounce.

I recently read a news story (it literally happened today) about a mountain lion that had gotten into a family home through an open patio door.  When the mother and daughter awoke in their bed at 3am to the loud barking of their small dog, they saw the shadow of an unknown animal lurking in their home.  In a matter of moments, the mountain lion had left the foot of the bed with the family dog in its jaws.   Isn’t nature truly wild?   It is in the nature of wild things like that.  Call it instinct or something in their DNA, but it is how these creatures innately are – predators by nature.

It made me wonder about our humanity as people.
More importantly, how we are made up.
It is in our DNA.
We have a nature too.
In Genesis it says that we were created in God’s image…though it is marred because of sin, that image is still there, within us.  More importantly, our spirits are naturally drawn to our Creator…many don’t know it, but this is why we question, why we seek, why we search our world for answers to all of life’s questions.  We were made this way.  Just as that kitten is instinctually drawn to pouncing on its prey, we are instinctively drawn to truth…and the Chief truth is found in the author of truth – God himself.

I am drawn to the children’s story of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, and when one of the children asks if Aslan is safe they get this reply –  “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”  God isn’t safe and sin cannot stand in the presence of God without being vanquished.  Without getting too theological, His goodness quickly overpowers and kills sin and darkness.  Hence this search for truth in our lives – we long to be reunited with the Author of Truth and Goodness.  It is in our DNA to seek Him out.  Some will blatantly reject Him for various reasons in life, but in general, we all long to rid ourselves of guilt, shame, sin, sickness and death – Christ is the answer, and He is the One we have been searching for in this life.  Is following Him safe in this life?  No, many perils and dangers will come because of this choice to follow Him.  The path may, in fact, become harder for us, but the journey will provide hope, joy and peace despite the circumstances or bumps along the way.

Sure, that kitten maybe a handful, he may even wreck havoc on the bird population in our neighborhood, but this is in his DNA, this is what he was born to do…and purring as goes…what is in your DNA?  Let me reassure you that how you were made is no accident.  We the created intrinsically long for our Creator…and we have been created for so much more than this.
-Just a thought.