Amy was playing in the yard one summer evening. She was catching fireflies and putting them into a jar. She enjoyed watching them light up in the jar.
As she chased one firefly that was near the back fence, she saw something crawl between the pickets. Looking closely, since it was now nearly dark, she found a little gray kitten. It was dirty and skinny, but as it rubbed against Amy’s leg she could hear it purring. She felt sorry for the stray kitten. Picking it up, she carried it into the kitchen. “Look what I found,” she announced. “A kitty!”
As soon as Amy’s daddy saw the kitten he told her to take it back outside and let it go. She could feed it something on the porch first, but he didn’t think they needed a cat living with them.
Amy cried and pleaded with her daddy to please let her keep it.
Her daddy loved Amy very much and didn’t like to make her unhappy. But he did not like cats. He told her to put it out on the porch for now.
How can I keep Amy happy without keeping the kitten, he wondered. He decided that the next day he would take the kitten out to Grandpa’s farm and then buy Amy a new doll. That should make her happy, he told himself.
After Amy went to bed, Daddy went out on the porch to see if the kitten was still around. When he couldn’t find it he figured it had run away. “So I won’t have to take it out to the farm, but I think I’ll get her the doll anyway since she will still be upset about the kitten,” he explained to his wife.
She smiled and then said, “Maybe you’d better look over there in the corner of the porch in Amy’s doll bed.”
There Daddy found the doll on the floor beside a saucer of milk and the kitten curled up asleep in the doll bed.
“Amy put the kitten there,” her mother said. “That’s how much she loves that kitty. She gave it her favorite doll’s bed. Don’t you think you could let her keep it?”
Daddy did think about it. The next morning he went into Amy’s room and gently wakened her. “You can keep the little kitty,” he told her.
Oh, how happy she was! She threw her arms around her daddy’s neck and gave him a big hug and a kiss.
We may not feel like that kitty, but in God’s eyes we are all like a little stray kitten - dirty, hungry and friendless. Even worse, we are sinners. But God still loves us, and He sent His beloved Son to die for us. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Those who come to the Lord Jesus with their problem of sin will find a very warm welcome. He never turns anyone away, and says, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). He washes our sins away and He comforts and feeds us. He also shows us not only how much He loves us, but that He will never let us go. One day very soon He has promised to come to take us to the Father’s house in heaven to be with Him forever. Oh what a wonderful Saviour He is. Is He your Saviour?
“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).
ML-04/23/1995