Kitten Love

I've never considered myself a cat person. In fact, I'm allergic. But this past week I came across an abandoned kitten. She was cute, desperate for help and meowing like crazy. I couldn't bring myself to walk away and leave her knowing that she would likely die. So, I picked her up and made some inquiries at the nearby houses. No one claimed her. I didn't know what to do, so I put her in my car to take her back to the church to our resident ministry assistant cat-lady. On the way to the church this little kitten crawled up my arm onto my shoulder and started nuzzling my beard. That pretty much sealed my fate. Fast forward a few hours and my wife and I were introducing our kids to their new pet and trying to think of names.

Later, as I thought about my cat, I realized that we come to God in much the same way that this little cat came to me. She was needy and desperate for help. She couldn't claim that she deserved my love or that I owed her anything. Yet, she came to me in her desperation hoping I would love her and help her anyway. This is exactly how we come to God. 

Luke 19:10 says that Jesus "came to seek and to save the lost.” And that is what we are without Him...lost. We desperately need Jesus. 2 Timothy 1:9 tells us that Jesus saves us "not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace." We don't deserve Jesus' love. He doesn't owe us His love, but He chooses to love us anyway. Just because He is loving.  

This drives home two basic starting points of the Christian faith that you must never forget. 

1) You stand before God needy and desperate for help.

2) You do not deserve His love but He loves you anyway.