Hissin' and Spittin'

A stray cat had kittens under my shed approximately 8 weeks ago.  They have just emerged recently and created all kinds of havoc at my already 'close-to-charging-admission-to-our-zoo' home.

The kittens were feral, meaning they had never interacted with humans.  To say they were distrustful is an understatement.  After trapping them and keeping them contained in our rabbit's outdoor pen, we soon realized how opposed to humans they were.

If you reached out a hand to pet them, they would hiss, spit, climb the walls and generally display bad kitty behavior.

So everyday I made a point to get in the pen, sit, pick up one hissing, spitting cat at a time and just love on it.  Despite the scratches, I kept on.

My daughter thought I was crazy. 

"How can you do that? Aren't you afraid??"

I explained to her that if I didn't, those kittens would never learn to interact with people.  No one would want them, and they would remain stray cats all their lives, never allowing anyone to get close to them.  "They have never experienced love from people," I told her. "They need to learn to trust that not every hand that reaches out to them is going to harm them...that sometimes those same hands provide love and comfort. You just have to overcome their fear with your love."

She thought for a moment.

"Kind of like people. I think mean people just need love," she replied.

God loves us the same way.  Even when we hiss and spit and don't trust, He keeps reaching out His hand to show us that His love is stronger than our doubt.

And she's right...those people who are mean, hissin' and spittin' all the time...they need that love more than we know.