Now is not tomorrow

There are cat people. There are dog people. I fall into the latter camp unless the cat is like a dog. For example, when a nonplussed slug cat plops down the stairs and greets me after I’ve been gone all day, sprawls across the floor with four paws in the air in the “pet me now pose,” then we’re buddies.

I have a nonplussed slug cat who does plop and pose. His name is Bubba.

Bubba does not like Barn Cat.

But I’m ahead of myself.

Barn Cat showed up almost two weeks ago in a nearby barn. A wild beast, he absolutely hated me.

We’ve taken incremental steps. First food and then I’d leave. Then food and I’d stay—at a distance. Then food in proximity. Then, yes, several more feedings later, That Moment of “the First Touch” came to us.

Barn Cat is not wild. He never was. He has had a hard go of it, though.

Speaking of going, that’s what he did for a few days. He just vanished.

Remember, I am a dog man. Yet in his absence I remembered Barn Cat rubbing his head against my leg. His tail would twitch as he ate. Barn Cat touched my heart.

His being gone made me miss him. The whole pang in my chest thing. Me, and a cat?
Yeah. Me and a cat.

God had given me this surprise (and unwanted) gift, and boom, he was gone.

As I stood in the empty barn which had never been more still or quiet, James 4:14 made more sense. The Berean Bible translation says, “You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

Without Barn Cat, I know the answer to the question, “What is your life?” Your life—and my life—is filled with chances, happenstances, bumps, bruises and a surprise or two. I am very tired with the doctoral program this semester and, with Barn Cat, I could feel the moments I should be reading or writing slipping away. I needed to study, not coach a once aloof and now sweetheart cat into sustained affection. [And on the time management front, no, you can’t read books about technology and theology when bonding with Barn Cat. Tried that. Didn’t work.]

Take this from a guy standing in an empty barn. What does work is love in the moment. Not tomorrow.

Don’t wait. Your Barn Cat may be gone and the gift you’ve been given today may be just that—a gift for today only.

Barn Cat is back. My heart leapt for joy when I saw him. He and Bubba are not BFFs yet. And while he is still no lap cat, when he purrs softly for a whole two seconds? Yep. That is heaven.

Bring heaven closer. Love in the now, not tomorrow.