Feline theology - part two

What my cat taught me about God by Brenda Smith

It was a very sad day for our family. Our cat, Taylor, friend and companion for 16 years had to be put down. Taylor had been a good cat; quiet, unassuming, a creature of habit whose days went by in a predicable pattern of eating, sleeping and the occasional stretch. If you ever wondered where Taylor was you looked for her in one of two places – the carpeted stool by the living room window or sunk in deep at the end of our bed. Even though she often went unnoticed, we knew she was around.

Now and again Taylor would straddle up beside your pant leg, meow gently, and remind you that though she was quiet, she still needed to give and receive love. Sometimes while lying on the couch engrossed in a good book, a head would poke up from under the pages purring loudly: hey – I’m here. Time for love! Purrrrrr.

Then it was back to quiet roaming, the silent watching by her window post, the hours of sleeping.

It wasn’t until she was gone that I realized something was missing, something important. This quiet, unassuming, hardly-there-at-all creature had had a strong presence in our lives and when she was gone, that presence went with her. I never would have guessed the loss I experienced over a cat who you hardly knew was there.

Over the past several months, I have reflected on the loss of that presence and how Taylor taught me more about The Presence – the presence of God – then I ever really understood from a theology text or a much-loved Bible verse. The Presence is about Presence. An unseen, unassuming stillness that subtly and yet so completely pervades our being and our spaces that it goes undetected much of the time.

At times, we think we can conjure up The Presence. We work hard at finding ways to make him reveal himself, bribing him with loud prayers and even louder singing. But Presence isn’t like that. We cannot cajole him. The Baal worshipers tried that when Elijah was around and God paid no attention. Presence is not something we can create or control; it just is. It is a grace that surrounds our every breath and every moment. And unless we lie very, very still we will not know he’s there, looking up at us from underneath the pages.

Writer: Major Brenda Smith has served in local Salvation Army congregations for fourteen years as a corps officer/pastor. While she has given leadership in other areas of ministry in The Salvation Army, it has been as a corps officer that she has found herself most challenged, particularly in the area of corporate worship. Why do people come to church and why do they come back? Finding the answer to these questions has embarked her on a lifelong quest leading her to pursue a master’s degree in worship studies. Brenda is currently Assistant Professor of Worship & Christian Ministries Program Coordinator at the Army’s Booth College in Winnipeg, Canada.

Part one of Feline Theology appeared
on theRubicon last Tuesday.
Feline Theology was first published in The Order, a Booth College student-run newsletter.
Reprinted with permission.

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