Sometimes we may take what we have for granted believing nothing will ever change. But suddenly, out of nowhere the unexpected shakes our world and sends us on a soul search. On June 11th, it happened to me in a flash. One minute my indoor cat and I were watching the cardinals and chickadees flit about the wooden feeder in the new meditation garden. It was a beautiful sunlit morning at the start of a new day. Hei-Hei was happily perched atop his table on the porch, enjoying the show in the little patch of flowers.
Then peace suddenly shattered and all hell broke loose. A pale white and tan tabby with ice blue eyes came up the steps and looked in the screen door. I was about to introduce Hei-Hei to Snowball, a people friendly cat we know from our walk in the Bunny Garden across the way.
Before I could open my mouth...Hei-Hei sprang from the table like a wild tiger and busted through the screen door chasing Snowball. "Hei-Hei, Come back! Come back!" I shouted running after the pair down the long drive.
Winded, I couldn't keep up. I turned back and Elliot and I hopped in the car and drove around the neighborhood across the way where Snowball lives. We found him right away, lounging by the road as if nothing had happened, and continued to search. Hei-Hei seemed to have vanished. We had no pulse on his energy anywhere. We posted flyers, notified Home Again, and called a friend for prayer support.
I prayed to better understand Hei-Hei was always in his perfect place, and nothing is ever lost in God's Kingdom. I found peace in holding to the Truth that nothing in reality is ever lost. Hei-Hei could never truly be lost as an idea in divine Mind perfect and complete. If he didn't return to us, he was with someone else, residing in love. There is only Love and nothing else. The hours ticked away and at dusk he'd been missing for ten hours.
While doing our evening prayers, we turned on the porch light and kept the blinds open in the sunroom. Hei-Hei always joined us at the close of the day, sprawled out on his back on the carpet as if riding on a cloud of peaceful bliss. With heavy hearts, we began praying the Our Father out loud in unison. When we said, For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory..." My son caught sight of Hei Hei slinking up to the front door. "He's here! Hei-Hei's at the door!" Our darkest hour had become a brilliant light. A miracle! A reunion of happy tears. Safe without a scratch--Hei-Hei was home again. "Thank you, God, thank you angels!" The Lord's Prayer had delivered him in divine order.
The next week something amusing happened... that appeared to be an orchestrated angel message.
I caught sight of our prodigal cat resting on my ruby garden slippers that I'd kicked off after feeding the birds. "There's no place like home," I laughed, petting his soft furry head. Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, had clicked her ruby slippers three times to return home.
A closer look at Hei-Hei's rare pose brought a lesson. The cat looked at me until I got it. He was leaning against a vintage portrait of young Jesus teaching in the temple. That's where Mary and Joseph had finally found him after an anxious three-day search for their missing son. When she questioned his behavior, Jesus told his mother, "How is it that you sought me? wist ye not that I be about my Father's business." (Luke 2:49 KJV)
I'd kept that portrait all these years as a reminder to be about my Father's business. It just so happened to temporarily block the desk cubbyhole where the big bags of bird seed are stored by the back door. Taking a photo, I noticed the reflection in the glass: A door is behind Jesus. The entrance to our kitchen. Jesus stands at the open door no man can shut. But then I saw Jesus' hand, it is extended over Hei-Hei's head. There is no place like home...and what peace comes when we live and move and have our being in Christ as we go about our Father's business. No matter how dark our world becomes, Christ is the Light that forever shines.
Love and peace,
Rae Karen
