“Do you want to go out, my darling Tillie?” an old woman dressed in a robe asked in a soft voice as she shuffled to the front door.
“Meow,” was Tillie’s response.
The woman and the cat had lived together for 21 years. They knew each other’s habits. The lady knew the cat would wander in and out of the bushes in the front yard for a few minutes and then wait at the front door to be let inside out of the cold.
Both were growing old. They could not hear, nor see, nor smell, nor move as easily as they did when they were younger.
What happened to Tillie? No one really knows because cats can’t talk, but when Tillie was in the front yard, she got spooked, and she ran like her life depended on it.
Past several houses, across a street, and out into a park she raced. She was so spooked that she never looked back to see what was chasing her. All her mind told her was to run, run, run. The park was by a lake. On this day in early December there was a thin sheet of ice over much of the lake.
Too bad she didn’t stop before she ran out onto the sheet of ice! The pads of her feet slipped on the smooth ice. She had to slow down to keep from falling. Only when she came to a patch of open water on the lake did she stop. In her confusion, she started walking in a small circle in the middle of a small lake that was barely frozen over.
A lady and a young man were walking on a trail next to the lake. They didn’t know each other. Both paused in their walk because they saw Tillie circling the hole in the ice.
“Poor cat,” said the lady.
“Looks like a very old one,” said the young man.
“If something isn’t done, it will for sure fall into that open water.”
The young man nodded in agreement and then shrugged his shoulders and asked, “But what can we do?”
The woman looked around and saw a little wooden dock sticking out from shore. On this pier was a little white rowboat barely big enough for two people.
“We can put that boat into the water. The ice is so thin, it will break easily. We can paddle out to the cat and rescue it. I am willing. Are you?” she asked her newfound friend.
The young man cast another glance at the cat and hesitated just briefly. “Let’s do it,” he replied with determination.
In less than a few minutes, they had dropped the small boat onto the lake. The ice broke easily under it. They were about to climb into the boat when they realized they had a problem.
“Oh no,” the woman said. “We have no paddle!”
The young man looked around. A paddle was not in sight, but something else was. “This will have to do,” he said, and he hurried to a nearby shed and grabbed a snow shovel that was leaning against its wall.
Crack, crack, crack went the ice as the boat went through it. The woman was in the front and the young man with the snow shovel paddled in the back. In a few minutes they neared the cat. When they got close, the ice broke beneath the cat and Tillie was plunged into the water. For a moment, the two in the boat thought they had lost her. Then her head bobbed above the water. The cat was gasping for breath. The woman in the front of the boat reached over the side and grabbed the cat by the scruff of her neck. She then scooped up the cat, dripping with icy, cold water, into her arms.
The poor cat was frigid and frightened. The woman held it close, cradling it like a baby against her body to keep it warm. When they got back to shore, they brought the cat to an animal shelter, and later that day Tillie’s owner came and got her. What a happy reunion! That day, Tillie’s owner decided that her cat was too old to go outside by herself anymore.
That poor cat on thin ice almost lost her life. If it were not for her two rescuers, she probably
would have.
Do you know that without the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives, we are in worse danger than Tillie on thin ice? When a person comes to the end of this life, they will enter either heaven or hell, and there they will stay, forever. Tillie was almost lost, but if you die without the Lord Jesus, you will be lost forever.
The good news is that the Lord Jesus came to earth to save you from hell, if you will believe on Him. To be able to save you, He died on Calvary’s cross after suffering for sins. He said “It is finished” (John 19:3030When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. (John 19:30)) right before He died. Then He rose again from the dead. That proves that He fully paid for all of the sins of those who believe on Him.
Messages of God’s Love 6/1/2025