Small children do it. I have heard of dogs doing it. But I’d never seen a cat do it.
It was a Sunday afternoon. Missy wanted very much to go out and play, but there was no one to take her. She sat on the cardboard castle by the window sadly looking out.
After a while, I glanced at her. She was still sitting on the “battlement,” but her head was hanging over the edge. Is she looking at something on the floor? I wondered. Perhaps a bug? Ants? I looked closer.
No, no bug. And Missy’s eyes were closed. Then I understood. As she sat looking out the window, fatigue had crept up on her and she had fallen asleep!
I tried to alert the rest of the family to this cute phenomenon, but when I moved, she woke. A few minutes later, when she’d fallen back asleep, I tried again, but again she woke.
Third time was the charm. This time, she didn’t wake until the camera clicked. Then, she yawned, stretched, and went to look for a place to take a proper nap, like the self-respecting cat she was.
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Lord, I can be so focused on what I want or what I’m “supposed” to do that I forget to take care of myself. Part of this is inattention, part is believing that I am somehow unworthy of rest unless I’ve taken care of everyone and everything else first. (Women seem swallow this particular lie whole!)
But You say, “Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28 Common English Bible (CEB)
You give us rest; we don’t have to earn it. You see us as we truly are: worthy not because of what or how much we do, but because of who – and Whose – we are. So You gift me rest, and, humbly awed, I accept. Amen, and . . . thank You.
“God never asked us to meet life’s pressures and demands on our own terms or by relying upon our own strength. Nor did He demands that we win His favor by assembling an impressive portfolio of good deeds. Instead, He invites us to enter His rest.”
― Charles R. Swindoll