By Rae Lynn DeAngelis
Early January of this year, I received a phone call from my sister; she was on the verge of tears. “Rae Lynn, Max is missing!” She pleaded, “Would you please start praying?”
My sister already believed in the power of prayer because she had experienced answered prayer eight years earlier when she found and rescued (4-week-old Max) abandoned, covered in mud, and barely breathing. Kathi knew that without assistance, the tiny kitten would die. So, filled with compassion, my sister took the homeless kitten to a vet clinic so they could address his immediate needs. Due to cost, keeping the kitten at the clinic overnight was not an option, so instead, the vet provided my sister with an eyedropper, bottles of formula, and some basic instructions to care for him.
Once home, Kathi wrapped Max in a soft cloth, cuddled him close, and said a prayer. “Lord, I give this kitty over to you and place him in your hands. Do what you think is best.” At that very moment, Max began to purr. It was the beginning of his miraculous recovery.
Now eight years later, that same kitty was once again in need of desperate prayer. Max (a housecat his entire life) had gotten out during the retrieval of a futon bed that had been donated to a local charity. My sister had arranged for the futon’s pick-up while she was at work. While the front door was propped open to remove the piece of furniture, Max unknowingly got out. Hours later when Kathi got home from work, Max was nowhere to be found.
She opened the front door and called for Max repeatedly, but he was long gone. Over the next several days, Kathi created flyers, alerted neighbors, and called animal shelters, providing a description of her Rag Doll kitty, hoping that if someone found him, they would return him to his home.
Kathi was crushed. With January temperatures dipping into single digits, she knew Max was in real danger. I kept encouraging my sister that God was watching over Max, just like He had done when Max was a kitten.
Kathi prayed, my husband and I prayed, and others prayed.
Days and weeks went by. Still no Max.
I started to wonder. Perhaps someone found Max, took him in, and cared for him as their own. In my mind, that was the best scenario, the best we could hope for.
But that wasn’t God’s best.
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).
No, God had something else in mind, something that would grow our faith and reveal God’s goodness even more.
Exactly one month after Max had gone missing, Kathi received a phone call from an animal shelter with good news. Max had been found! God’s ways are not our ways. His ways are higher.
And now… the rest of the story.
It turns out, Max did not venture outside the house that day. Instead, frightened by what appeared to be a stranger in the house, Max hid himself inside the futon bed cushion. When the futon was carried off, Max went with it and ended up at the charity’s furniture warehouse where he remained hidden for an entire month.
Kathi later learned warehouse workers suspected an animal was trapped in the building when they found droppings. But between water from the bathroom and food set out by the workers, Max was able to survive an entire month until, eventually, he was caught in a live-trap and taken to an animal shelter, (the very same shelter Kathi called weeks earlier when Max disappeared). Hallelujah, God is good!!
So, why do I share this story?
First, this is an incredible example that reveals God cares about His creation. He cares deeply for us, and He cares deeply for His creatures, great and small.
Second, God hears our prayers and is delighted when we come to him for help. He knows what we need even before we ask, but He still wants us to cry out to Him, so that He can answer our prayers in astounding ways and increase our faith.
Third, if God cares this much about a beloved housecat, imagine how much He cares about you and me. God loves us so much. His ways are higher, His timing is perfect, and His provision is beyond all we can think, ask, or imagine.
Lord, thank you for not only rescuing Max, but for rescuing your sons and daughters who once were lost, but now are found, saved by the sacrifice of your One and only Son.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isiah 55:8-9).
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