Jasper and Josie

Shortly after we moved to Hendersonville, our youngest son asked for a kitten. Our oldest son didn't want a cat in the house and didn't want to have anything to do with the cat once we brought it home. We went to the pet shelter and our little guy had found his kitten. Jasper, with his orange-red-yellow striped fur. I am not sure what the actual or official color is, but he has orange-red fur.

Josie is suppose to be his sister. She is grey with white patches and white paws. She was extremely little, most likely the runt of the bunch, tiny as she was. Well, we agreed to adopt Jasper, but Josie wouldn't let our oldest son move without showering him with attention. Our son bent down and began to pet Josie. He spent a lot of time with her and must have fallen in love with her immediately. Our son who wanted nothing to do with a cat for any reason looked up at his father and me. He simply asked, "Can we get two kittens"? I looked at my husband and I looked at the kitten and looked at my son. His kitten cold heart had melted, he wanted not just any kitten, he wanted the one who was desperately trying to get him to notice her.

Josie and her brother were adopted that day. Jasper knew which person in our family had chosen him. Jasper's loyalty was to Andrew. Andrew was his boy. He laid next to him, played with him, fed him, and slept with him. Jasper was his and Andrew was his boy.

The scrawny little Josie stole Tony's heart and just as her brother did she had spent all of her time and attention with Tony. She would run to the door when she hear him coming to the door. She would sit in his lap alone. She knew that he was hers and she was his.

Josie and Jasper both knew the rules that day we walked into the animal shelter. They knew that they needed to win the heart of whomever came looking for a kitten. Jasper by nature is friendlier with strangers than Josie is. Jasper looked healthy and robust for a little kitten. Josie, by all accounts was the lesser of the two kittens. Small in size, we found out shortly after arriving home, sickly. She doesn't like strangers. She will hide and wait until they are gone to come out to eat, potty or play. But that day, Josie knew her life laid in someone else's hands. She knew that she needed to step outside of her comfort zone and take that risk. That risk to show love to someone she just met. That risk to share of herself what she didn't want to lose. She wanted to be loved, cared for and taken home. She wanted to be saved from life in the animal shelter. She wanted to go where she would be loved forever.

Josie and Jasper wanted what we are all looking for. They wanted to be accepted, to be loved and cared for all their days. Don't we all have the same wants, needs and desires. We want to be loved, we want to be accepted and we want to be cared for all of our days. I know the only source of that love, acceptance and care, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. God's perfect plan was to have his son come into the animal shelter (the world) and give us what we need to find him and let him know we need him to take us. The best part of all, Jesus takes us. Each and every one of is able to be adopted by Jesus. This is exciting, this is life altering and this is all we need to know that we will be loved, cared for and accepted. We are accepted no matter how sickly we may appear, he accepts us no matter what.

Do you have a desire to be loved, accepted and cared for? Go ahead and step outside your comfort zone and ask Jesus to take you with him.

How Do We Really Know?

I received a prayer request the other day from someone in our bible study. The prayer request was for the knowledge and the peace about an assignment. The subject was race, the issue at heart was how to respond to someone quoting a verse about not mixing races. You see, the lady from our bible study felt that God was saying she should not mix races. Her children, you see are very precious to her. They are also very precious to God.

Would God not love her or her children if they are part of her and a part of someone from another race? My question would have to be, do we not love others who are of another race? Did not Jesus come to this earth as a babe and grew to be crusified on the cross for my sins and the sins of every man, woman, and child? Did He not die for each and every race? Let's go even further back. Didn't God create every single race known to man?

God tells us in the bible that He is pleased with His creations. Isn't he pleased with the little boy and the little girl whose mother is of one race and the father another?

In the bible it tells us that Jesus is the new covenant. That once Jesus came to die for us, He became the new covenant, and all the rules in the old testiment given to the people of that time to be clean and to present a sacrifice were no longer necessary. We only needed to be made whole, white as snow, clean because of Jesus's sacrifice on the cross. No longer do we need to sacrifice an pure animal, the purest sacrifice had been made in our stead.

No, we no longer need to keep our races clean, we only need to keep our hearts as clean as we can by asking Jesus into our hearts. The God who created us, sent His son to die for us, and loves us does so not because of what race we are, but who we are. His children, there is no better title I would rather have.