James 2:15-16
15 “If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,”16 “And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?”
So we had a visitor last night. While eating dinner with the door open, we heard this odd sound. At first, my wife thought it was me slurping down my dinner! (I am still not sure if I should be offended.) As it turned out, it was our cat Panther hissing at something she saw outside, so we ran over to take a look.
The big disturbance turned out to be another cat on the other side of the screen door. Panther, never saw a cat she liked.
So there we are, all standing at the front door like we have never seen a cat before. I start to talk to the cat (no, I am not crazy) and the cat in turn gave me a soft meow right back, like it was trained, or trying to steal our heart.
Of course, my wife says, “Oh he is so cute!”
After a few minutes, and a lot more hissing from Panther, we went back to the dinner table.
Minutes later, the cat outside came right up to the screen door, he wanted to come inside. Even with Panther hissing just inches from his face! The cat certainly did not look malnourished, no tags or collars.
My wife wanders back over to the door and keeps looking at the cat. I know what she is thinking, she wants the cat, but Panther would probably disown us.
This went on for close to ten minutes.
We all kept going over and looking at that cat outside who returned soft meows from Panther’s hissing.
Panther finally goes over to her food dish, and my wife says, “Let’s feed it!”
I said, “Then we will never get rid of it.”
The kids added their two cents, “Momma, you would give another cat Panther’s food!”
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The outrage of it all!
Then James 2 jumped into my head, specifically James 2:14-16. James 2 constantly talks about works that document our faith.
So I told the kids, remember what we learned the other day?
“If we see someone in need and all we do is say hey buddy, be warm and filled, but we do nothing to help them. Well, we really failed at an opportunity to shine Christ’s Light.”
The kids thought about it for a second and said, “Oh yeah! Well, we should give that cat some food, he might be hungry.”
Everyone jumped to their feet, one got a bowl, another brought the food.
My wife with dish in hand carefully opened the door not to let the other cat in, and to ensure Panther did not sink her claws into our dinner guest. As my wife made her way outside, the cat started to run off. Then she shook the food dish and that must have been some secret language to the cat as it came running back to her.
I tell you what, I have not seen an animal chow down like that in a long time. The cat was starving, though it did not look like it was in need of food from its appearance.
Of course, the feeding frenzy escalated. The wife shouts, “Bring some milk too!”
The cat quickly switched up to the milk.
After about 10 minutes or so, it finished its meal and strolled off into the night.
While we were just dealing with a neighborhood cat, I think we all learned a lesson last night.
Never be afraid to provide a helping hand when someone is truly in need.