Cats And Gospel Conversations
I don’t like cats. Some of you may want to stop reading this now, but it’s true. Last year we got new neighbors behind our house, and they had three FLUFFY Persian cats. We live in a townhouse, which means we share side walls with the neighbors on our row, and we share backyard walls with the neighbors beside us and behind us.
We have a 4-foot-high wall separating our 12 ft. x 20 ft. paved backyard from neighbors. Some have built their walls higher to have more privacy, but most of us can walk out back and talk with neighbors one or two houses down while we hang out our laundry. Our kids enjoy passing things over the walls to our neighbors or even climbing over the wall to play in a neighbor’s pool. We’ve had good conversations over those walls, so I liked my neighbors and their yards... until the cats moved in.
At first, the new neighbor, Jace, rang our doorbell, asking if we’d help find their cats, who had gotten out on the street. From then on, I had Jace’s phone number and called her whenever I saw one that I could help her corral. The cats enjoyed jumping over the wall to use our yard as a litter box. Then the neighbors drilled posts into their wall and wrapped what looked like a volleyball netting around one and a half floors of their house to contain the cats. The cats enjoyed walking along the wall, rubbing their loose fur against the net so that it would blow onto my drying laundry.
And did the net stop the cats from getting out? No, they walked around on it like tightrope walkers. So, what was once a peaceful backyard space for our family was now an ugly view of nets, fur, and cat poo.
As the months went by, I could see other things in their backyard. Junk seemed to pile up. The same laundry would hang out on the line for days. I hardly saw the neighbors themselves anymore. I would occasionally sigh and ask God to work in my heart to care more about the people themselves than about the eyesore.
The week before Easter, we delivered Easter bags to the neighbors in our row and some businesses across the street. The bags included candy, a personal note telling them how much we appreciated them as neighbors, and an invitation to church. Lucas LOVED delivering the bags. And how could the neighbors resist a grinning 5-year-old running to give them an Easter surprise?
I felt God prodding me to give one to the neighbor behind us, too, even though I hadn’t seen Jace out back in weeks. We rang her front door, and she said, “Oh, Sarah...” Then she explained how her husband was leaving her and the kids after 23 years of marriage, how her life was falling apart, and how she was moving to a nearby apartment the day before Easter. She asked, “As soon as I get settled, can we go out for coffee to talk?”
And in that second, I realized something. Lord willing, I will get to talk deeply with Jace this month about Jesus . . . because we have a relationship . . . because we got to know each other . . . BECAUSE OF THOSE CRAZY CATS!
What had most annoyed me was perhaps the most necessary element for a Gospel conversation to happen! So, am I sorry to see the cats go? No. Am I sorry to see Jace and her kids go? Yes, but God-willing, we may be able to point them to the hope of eternity soon.
Please pray for Jace’s broken heart to be open to the God who never leaves us nor forsakes us.
