Frightened

We had a good week with the family. We took them to Amberley and Arundel (to the castle) for a bit of English culture. And then we spent two days visiting London seeing all the famous pieces of English history! It was good, but full on. The good weather helped because we were able to be in the garden in the evenings and all day on their last day. Our cats, however thought differently! Gimli, normally very sociable and friendly, was not so present. The number of people and the noise put him off being around so much, although he likes his food so we saw him regularly. Floyd on the other hand, who is never seen when we have visitors, completely disappeared. So much so that we put out leaflets through our neighbours doors on Sunday asking if anyone had seen him. Floyd has his times and places where he will see us, but we hadn’t seen him for a few days and we had begun to wonder if something had happened to him. Then, on Monday evening, two days after the family had left, he crept into the living room through the open patio doors! It was relief to see him. But he still hasn’t been around much this week. He’s not sleeping under our bed, which was pretty much his home. He didn’t sit with me while I was doing my counselling sessions on Tuesday evening, a ritual that has been weekly for months! So he’s back, but not quite back. He’s been freaked, and he’s still not quite sure about being in the house. The family are long gone and not coming back (not for another twenty years maybe). He would be perfectly safe in the house. But he’s been freaked. And he’s not convinced. Yet. Which makes me think of parallels between me and God. And lots of other people and God. Sometimes I’m not convinced that God is safe. And, over the years, I’ve heard many people say the same thing. Not in those words of course. But they say the same thing. “What have I done to deserve this?” “I must have done something. God is discipling me.” Well…maybe. But mostly not. We have a warped view of God which gets us into this kind of thinking. And our understanding of the Bible doesn’t help us. We have convinced ourselves that we are far from God. Always. And simply because we are human. Tragedy is, that God thinks we are very good. Yes he does! He’s always thought that and he thinks that now. About you! That’s not say we don’t do stuff that draws us away from God. We do. But that’s on our side of the relationship. God is still for us. His relationship with us hasn’t changed. Ever. And we spend so much of our time thinking we can’t go back because we’re not good enough, or God will be cross with us or…I want to pick Floyd up and explain to him that he is safe in the house and the has nothing to fear. I want to tell him it’s fine. But he’s a cat, so I can’t! I wonder sometimes if God wants to do the same with us, to pick us up and tell us that we have nothing to fear and are perfectly safe with him. But we’re…stubborn. Maybe he wants to do that with you right now. Now there’s a lovely thought!