I was 18 years old living in East Texas when I got a knock on the door. It was my neighbor who was a counselor at my high school. She was looking a little distressed and asked if I could help her. I said sure and walked outside with her where she pointed up in our tree and said “There’s a cat stuck in your tree!¨ Well, the first thing you need to know is that I am NOT a fan of the cat, be that as it may, I was concerned the poor thing was a mere kitten and looked scared. Secondly, in East Texas, we have pine trees…and pine trees get VERY tall. This particular one was easily 20 feet ABOVE our 2 story house’s rooftop. TALL. Lastly, I am terrified of heights. With this information you can see where this is going.
My neighbor told me the cat had been there since the day before. Reluctantly, but feeling the need to be a local hero, I got our big extension ladder and placed it against the nearest branch. Without much forethought whatsoever, I climbed. And climbed, and climbed. Before too long, I was even with the rooftop and the tree had a sway to it that probably looked relaxing and graceful from the ground, but from where I was. it was about to make me hurl. By now, the frightened kitten could see I was coming and had cranked up the meow frequency. I got closer and closer until finally I could reach up and grab the feline acrobat. YEEEEEOOOOWWWWWW! The cat jumped over to me and landed on my shoulders with all its precious little claws fully extended (in pierce mode). This was definitely something I had not considered as the cat was now clinging to my flesh, since I was wearing shorts and a tank top. I pried loose the talons of death as blood dripped on my leg. I could now see my lack of a well thought-out plan was now biting me in the rear. I called down to my neighbor, who was standing with a now gathered group of concerned neighbors, and said “Go get a blanket and make a landing pad for the cat, and I will toss it down to a nice comfortable landing. “As they went to get the blanket, I spent some time analyzing the branches and saw a perfect path between branches where I could safely toss the tiny kitten and it gently land in the soon to be waiting blanket. The cat was purring like mad and was obviously happy to see me, although I was trying hard to keep it from removing any more of my skin.
Ok, the blanket is ready, the neighbors pulled it tight from each corner so it formed a firefighter’s trampoline. We’re set. I hooked my leg around a branch and un-naturally leaned out from the tree and moved the cat to my hands. It was still purring, but I am sure was beginning to wonder heck what I was doing. 1 – 2 – 3 GOOOoooooo! From this moment, everything was in super slow motion. The cat’s body was perfectly lined up as it slowly left my hands. I was relieved and so proud of my heroic actions and brilliant idea! Then out of nowhere, the cat used it’s very last opportunity to twist it’s tiny little body like a weird circus contortionist, and it used its left rear paw to once again drive a claw in to my hand. Not good. Obviously that cat thought it was about to die, and tried to grab on to something, and when it found my hand, it was just enough to alter the flight path of the circus cat and its future wasn’t as bright as it was 1 second ago. I remember noticing the expressions on my neighbors’ faces. Gone were the gracious smiles and relieved hearts. Now I saw pretty much what was on my mind, their mind, and the cats TERROR!
Funny how slow life can turn when the stuff hits the fan. I watched in gross detail, as the cat slammed against the first branch, then bounced off the next and proceeded to hit pretty much every available branch on its way to what used to be a safe landing. Instead, it finally landed about 10 feet away from the outstretched blanket as 6 sets of eyes helplessly watched. (Just to settle an age old myth – yes, the cat did in fact land on its feet!) After a loud MEOW without a seconds’ hesitation, it bolted to the nearest bush and got the hell away from this tortuous lynch mob that was gathered at the base of the tree. I am convinced the physical scars from the ordeal were far outweighed by the psychological ones that cat would carry for the rest of its life. What a drastically different and tragic ending to what was supposed to be salvation!
How many times have we also been in the same situation as that cat? There we are, atop a giant predicament or situation, and God has climbed the tree to get to us. We feel His hands around us and then suddenly we’re tossed out to a path we don’t see and can’t understand. So in our natural human nature instinct, we reach out and try to take the matter in to our own hands and “fix things” only causing the plan to be altered and we commence to hitting every hard branch on the way down. The branch of doubt, fear, worry, stress. Knowing you and knowing me, we will probably land on our feet, but we will have some bruising as well.
Proverbs 3:5-6
5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
What a perfect perspective God has over us! He can see the branches below, he knows where we are and what we need and how to get the TRUST in him and ignore those natural feelings and tendencies and He will get us there where he wants us!