As my Daddy made his way into the house I saw he had a brown grocery bag in his hand. It was 1979 maybe 1980 and life was simple. I was 5 and my worries consisted of what time I had to go bed that night. The joy of a child is immeasurable I do believe. Well, anyway, Momma had gotten me and Lisa ready because our church was going to have a softball game that night. We were patiently waiting on Daddy to get home so we could all leave.
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I could feel excitement in the air as he walked in through the side door where the carport was. I wasn't too sure what they were so excited about but I knew it must be good. Daddy walked towards me and Lisa and sat this brown grocery bag down right in front of us. He began to tell us that he had gotten us a present and anticipation and excitement was rising with every word.
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Finally, when we just couldn't take it anymore, Daddy opened up that brown grocery bag and exclaimed, "We got ya'll a kitten!" Lisa and I jumped up off the couch and started squealing and clapping at the exact moment that Daddy pulled that bag apart. Within less than a mili-second that kitten shot out of that brown grocery bag as if it had firecrackers on its tail. It started running around the house, across the backs of the couches and chairs, in and out of the furniture, up and down the hall and I promise you as sure I'm sitting here I think that kitten even climbed one wall and walked across the ceiling! That poor thing was scared to death! I sit here now laughing just remembering the look we all had on our faces when that cat shot out of that bag.
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Lisa and I immediately started carrying on about how Daddy needed to find the cat and help the cat and bless the cat. You know, just being kids wanting our Daddy to fix the problem. I remember Daddy bent over on the floor with a broom trying to poke and prod this cat and convince it to come out from underneath the couch. Looking back, I wonder what in the world made him think poking at it with a broom handle was going to work?!?!? This man had just placed this cat in a brown grocery bag, drove it home to an unidentified place and now he was poking at it with a stick...yeah...I don't think I would have come out either!!!
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After a little bit Momma finally announced that we had to leave to go to this softball game and we would deal with the cat later. I don't remember anything about that softball game, I don't remember how long the cat stayed hidden in our house, I really don't even remember the cat. But, I do remember the chase! I remember it like it was yesterday! That is one memory that I wouldn't change for anything in the world. Not because the cat was traumatized, but because that is how I remember my family...laughing, cutting up, crying, Daddy trying to fix it, laughing some more and then trying to re-tell the story to someone else laughing so hard you aren't making any sense!
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Do you have any stories that you could tell to someone else that wouldn't be funny or make any sort of sense? Or, have you ever done anything hilarious and while you were about to wet your pants with laughter you look around and no one else is laughing? Or, better yet, have you ever done an act that someone else just couldn't understand the whys or hows or whats about it? Jesus did just that! He committed an act of salvation by dying on that cross but here we are 2,009 years later and there are people who just don't understand. They still question it. They questioned it back then and they question it today. But yet no matter how you try to analyze it, break it down, explain it, or re-examine it; it all comes down to one answer, "...But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice." Hebrews 9:26 (NLT). End of story...the cat is out of the bag!
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