Cats are such mysterious creatures; unlike dogs, they can be loving, but also have a wildness about them and an air of unpredictability; you just never know what they will do next. Yet, millions upon millions of people have them as pets and adore them.
This picture seems to accurately reflect the feline character and that aurora of uncertainty that surrounds their nature. A cat coming out of darkness into the light, wary of its surroundings and undoubtedly prepared to handle any situation.
Humans can also be unpredictable; we can create such lovely works or art or architecture, use language to compose prose and poetry that enlightens the spirit or any one of a thousand things the human mind can accomplish. However, our race also has the capacity for great evil and atrocities beyond imagination.
In parallel to these things is the concept of light as compared to darkness; good versus evil. A life with God, directed by HIM to follow the loftiest of ideals, or a human being that, left to his or her own base desires, can commit actions that can are unspeakable.
The good news is that we have a choice- Good or Evil. As I contemplate these attitudes and actions, I think of the apostle Paul and his change from opposing Jesus, to proclaiming the message of hope from God.
Paul says to king Agrippa…
Acts 26 ( World English Bible )
1 Agrippa said to Paul, “You may speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand, and made his defense.
2 “I think myself happy, King Agrippa, that I am to make my defense before you this day concerning all the things that I am accused by the Jews,
3 especially because you are expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews. Therefore I beg you to hear me patiently.
4 “Indeed, all the Jews know my way of life from my youth up, which was from the beginning among my own nation and at Jerusalem;
5 having known me from the first, if they are willing to testify, that after the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.
6 Now I stand here to be judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers,
7 which our twelve tribes, earnestly serving night and day, hope to attain. Concerning this hope I am accused by the Jews, King Agrippa!
8 Why is it judged incredible with you, if God does raise the dead?
9 “I myself most certainly thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
10 This I also did in Jerusalem. I both shut up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to death I gave my vote against them.
11 Punishing them often in all the synagogues, I tried to make them blaspheme. Being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.
12 “Whereupon as I traveled to Damascus with the authority and commission from the chief priests,
13 at noon, O king, I saw on the way a light from the sky, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who traveled with me.
14 When we had all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
15 “I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
16 But arise, and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you a servant and a witness both of the things which you have seen, and of the things which I will reveal to you;
17 delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you,
18 to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
Paul’s message: Turn to God for forgiveness of sins and receive the blessing He offers. A simple defining choice that can echo through eternity. Choose God and live in HIS light or the ignorance of the darkness of the rebellion of Satan.
Choice is a wonderful thing; that cat in the picture chose to come into the light and so can we! Choose light and life and God, you will be glad you did!
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