This is Link, my cat. Sometimes called Linky-pooh.

Link is an indoor cat because outdoor cats around here don’t live very long.

Nevertheless, he is a cat, and cats are intently focused on killing. They are serial killers without the possibility of a conscience. Link is not a man, with moral sense and a spirit that can commune with God. He’s an animal. So it’s okay when he looks at me with the eye of a tiger. It’s a good thing he weighs ten pounds and I weigh 125 pounds because it prevents him from murdering me. Not that he wants to, it’s just that he’s cat, you understand, and he can’t help himself.

I understand that the nature of cats is stamped on them by their Creator: they have their niche as the hunter and culler of small animals. They are wired in every way to respond to a moving stimulus. We’ve all observed  this. They crouch low, tail whipping from side to side, eyes staring at their prey, a rapid “kid, kik, kik” barely audible, vibrating from their throats.

Link sometimes forgets that Rufus, the big, gluttonous grey squirrel is separated from him by a glass wall. Link throws himself against the window with a thunk, lands on his feet and shakes his head as if coming out of a trance.

Killing, and raising the next generation of killers is Link’s purpose. He’s a strikingly beautiful killer, don’t you think?

God has given animals their own kind of glory. I think most of them are way more beautiful than humans.

But we humans have a greater glory, the potential to become sons of God through Jesus, the Christ. And when we do, He immediately sends His Spirit to instruct  us about our Kingdom purpose.

Some, like Link, understand God’s mandate immediately. Others, like me, take a while to learn my purpose in His kingdom and to become intently focused.

I’m getting there, I think. Watching the single-mindedness of animals in their munching, grazing, and cud-chewing, of seeking a mate, being watchful of danger, and hunting blood and bone is a daily reminder that I ought, also,  to be about my own business. That of walking like Enoch walked. With God.

Intently.

“And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.” (Heb. 12:1,2)