Three little kittens they lost their mittens,And they began to cry,
Oh, mother dear, we sadly fear
Our mittens we have lost.
What! lost your mittens, you naughty kittens!
Then you shall have no pie.
Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow.
No, you shall have no pie.
– Eliza Lee Cabot Follen
I don’t know exactly where or exactly when they were born. What I do know is where and when they were found.
My wife and I arrived home from leading a Bible Study at the home of some friends on a rainy Sunday evening. My wife went to the basement to put a load of laundry in the washer. That was not something she normally did on a Sunday evening, but two of our grandchildren had stayed with us for three nights and had generated some extra laundry.
"Hey, Hon," she said as she came back up from the basement. "We’ve got a problem."
Visions of water two or three inches deep from the rain filled my mind. Then I saw a washer that had exploded all its broken parts all over the basement. Then I saw the parts floating in two or three inches of dirty water. I figured the visions would just get worse, so I said, "What’s that?"
She beckoned me to come to the basement with her, and I did, even though the visions told me I didn’t want to go.
As soon as I arrived at the bottom of the stairs, I heard them. Crying. Pitifully. But where were they?
We went back upstairs and grabbed an umbrella and went out into the dark, rainy night. We quickly discovered them clinging to each other under a bush in a basement window well. Three little kittens. Three little newborn kittens. And it wasn’t lost mittens that were on their minds. It was the rain that was dripping through the branches of the bush and falling on their little heads that gave them alarm.
We assumed that Mama Cat was somewhere nearby, so we did not want to remove the kittens. But we did want to protect them from the rain. We retrieved an appropriate-sized piece of plywood from the garage and angled it over the well to keep out the rain. We left an opening for Mama Cat to go in. We did not touch the kittens, or disturb them. Our purpose was solely to keep the rain from falling on them.
The next morning, we checked and the kittens were all still in place, warm and dry beneath the temporary shelter we had built for them. But we did not see Mama Cat. We watched for her for the better part of the day. The area is visible from a window in our family room, and from our back patio. We did not see Mama Cat at any time during the day. Nor did we see any evidence of her presence.
By late afternoon, with a cold front predicted to arrive, we made a decision. Linda put on her gardening gloves and reached into the well to pull out, one-by-one, three apparently abandoned kittens and place them into a plastic storage container she found in the garage. An old but clean towel was folded on the bottom of the container to make a soft blanket. There was a lot of meowing and crying and struggling, but she managed to get them all out of the cold and onto the blanket. We carried the container, kittens and all, into the warmth of our family room.
Now what? We had rescued three little kittens, but we had little knowledge of how to care for them. The sun came out and we decided to place the kittens in their container on the patio in the sun, near the window well where we had discovered them. We were still hoping Mama Cat would come snooping around. But she never did.
Linda called the local animal shelter, but they said they would have no choice but to euthanize the kittens. They did not have the manpower to provide the intensive care newborn kittens require. They gave us names of other shelters to contact, which we did. We heard the same thing over and over. We really would like to help, but we are already overcrowded.
We brought the kittens back inside and went on the Internet looking for advice on what to do. We learned about round-the-clock feedings every two hours for at least two weeks. We learned about stimulating the kittens to go to the bathroom. We learned about keeping them warm. These are all things Mama Cat does for her offspring. But there was no Mama Cat. We would have to do these things if these kittens were ever to get old enough to wear mittens that they could lose. None of the articles we read suggested we give the kittens pie. We had to give them milk, cat’s milk, at just the right temperature.
We went to a pet store and purchased a can of cat’s milk along with small bottles and nipples to feed the kittens. Linda did most of the work, feeding them every two or three hours, day and night, stimulating the business end of the kittens to do what they needed to do to stay healthy. Mama Cat would use her tongue for this chore; Linda decided to use an old wash cloth dipped in warm water instead. Can’t say that I blame her for that choice.
I told her not to name them because we couldn’t keep them. There are allergies in our children and grandchildren, and three little kittens would eventually become three adult cats, and, well, it just wasn’t going to happen that three cats would be permanent residents in our home.At their next feeding, I heard my wife referring to the white kitten as Snowball, to the larger, orange one as Puff and to the smaller, orange one as Tiny.
We continued the feedings. I did some of them. It was an interesting experience to hold a tiny, furry life in my hands and place a bottle to its mouth and see a little jaw start moving as milk was sucked from the bottle. I thought of the greatness of God’s creative abilities, how he fashioned little mouths to work in such a way as to bring nourishment into the body. These kittens were blind, deaf, unable to regulate their body heat and unable to go to the bathroom without stimulation, yet they knew how to suck milk into their mouths and swallow it.
We continued to seek a shelter that would take the kittens and care for them and not kill them. We continued to feed them and do all that we could for them. It was becoming more challenging each day. We had other things to do, responsibilities, ministries, and feeding kittens every two hours was a growing burden. We discussed taking them to the local shelter. We had tried to save them, but it was obviously too much for us. The shelter people would hold the kittens and pet them and soothe them as the poison worked its way through their tiny bodies and stopped their little hearts from beating. It would be humane. And the world really didn’t need three more unwanted cats in it.
But we continued caring for the cats. Finally, on the fifth day, a former student of mine said she had found a place that would take the kittens and raise them until they were of adoptable age. She said she would take them to the facility on Sunday morning, two days hence. Sunday morning at 8:00 sharp, she and her husband were at our front door. They took Snowball, Puff and Tiny in the plastic box they had lived in for a week, and later that day delivered the three little kittens to the Little Orphans Kitten Shelter. Thank you, Lord. We were free from the burden, and the kittens would not be euthanized unless they became so sick they could not be saved. They would be raised until they were about seven or eight weeks old, then they would be advertised for adoption at the age they are the cutest and most difficult to resist. The kittens would be inoculated, spayed or neutered, and delivered to their new families.
As a man trained in Biblical theology, I have two thoughts that our experience with three little kittens who had lost so much more than their mittens brought to my mind.
First, I believe God does care about animals. After all, He created them. The God I worship, the God revealed in the Bible, does not create things just to throw them away. Jesus taught His disciples that God cares for animals. "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?" He said, referring to the sparrows that were sold as potential sacrifices in the Jewish Temple. "Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care." (Matthew 10:29-31)
In the context of this teaching, Jesus was reassuring His followers of God’s care for them. Since "you are worth more than many sparrows" Jesus said God would take care of His own people even more than He took care of His other created beings.
In another place, Jesus said that God feeds the birds and clothes the weeds that grow freely in the fields. If He provides for birds and for plants, "are you not much more valuable than they?" (Matthew 6:25-30)
Clearly God uses His creation for His own glory. That sometimes calls for the death of some of His creatures, as in the Temple sacrifices, or animals that are killed in order to feed people or provide them with clothing or shelter. But He is also glorified in the fact that He takes care of His creatures and provides for their needs. Three little kittens are now in the care of people who know what they need and are dedicated to providing it. God is praised, glorified, in this.
The second theological thought is more complex, and more important, and more beautiful. In this second theological thought I had, the three kittens together are an illustration of a deeply vital teaching of the Christian Scriptures. The situation of the kittens in their lostness and in their salvation is an incredibly accurate portrayal of what God has done for me as well as for every other sinner whom Jesus has saved.
Snowball, Puff and Tiny were born into a doomed situation. The one individual who was supposed to feed them, clean them and warm them for those first several weeks of their lives was not present for whatever reasons. Thus there was no one to feed them, clean them and warm them. No one. They were doomed to death. Their situation was hopeless.
Think of the many ways death could have found those kittens. They could have starved to death in that window well with no one to feed them. They could have frozen to death in that well with no one to warm them. Another animal could have found them and killed them and dragged their dead bodies home to feed their own babies. They could have been found by human beings who did not want to be bothered with them and killed them just to be rid of them. The window well could have flooded and drowned them. It was just a matter of time; death for the kittens was inevitable. They had no one to save them.
It is clear to me from my knowledge of the Bible that I was born into a similar situation. I was born with a propensity to fail. There was nothing I could do to change that; in fact, because I was born to fail, the only thing I could do in my life was fail. Sooner or later my inability to make the correct choices and follow through on them would lead to my death. It was just a matter of time.
The Bible calls this propensity to failure sin. That doesn’t necessarily mean I would wind up committing murder, or adultery or stealing what belonged to others. I might do these things because of my sin nature, but I more likely would do other things that are opposed to what God wants me to do. That is all sin is, after all. It is doing what I want to do without finding out what God wants me to do. I personally have never shed anyone’s blood. But I have sinned. I personally have never had an intimate physical relationship with anyone other than my wife. But I have sinned. I personally have always tried to be scrupulously honest in my dealings with others, including when filing income taxes. But I have sinned. Pride. Lust. Hatred. Laziness. Selfishness. Greed. There are endless numbers of ways a person can sin without shedding blood, sleeping with someone to whom they are not married, or breaking into someone’s house and stealing all their good stuff. These are sins as well, of course, but not all sinners do these particular things. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome (Romans 3:23). All. You. Me. All of us. We were born into just as hopeless a situation as Snowball, Puff and Tiny were. It was just a matter of time before it all caught up with us and ended our physical life, and cast us into an eternity separated from God.
At a critical moment, a hand, that of my wife, reached down into the well of hopelessness and raised three little kittens out of despair and fear. Soon they were warm. Soon they were fed. Soon they were clean. And they slept. Soundly. Peacefully. Without a care.
It was amazing to watch. There was meowing and crying until three little bellies were full, then all sounds ceased and three little kittens wrapped themselves in each other and fell fast asleep. No threats from other animals finding them. No rain falling on their heads. No coldness creeping into their bodies. No empty bellies or full bladders to disrupt their contentment. Someone else was taking care of everything for them. Someone else who cared about them cared for their needs.
When I came to faith in Jesus as a seventeen-year-old high school student, I had many fears and frustrations in my heart because of my inability to order my life properly and please God. I was weary from trying to take care of myself, from trying to figure out what was right and what was wrong, from wondering if I could ever be good enough to wind up in Heaven, from wondering even if there was a Heaven. Or a Hell.
Jesus took all those burdens from me. He took over caring for me, making decisions for me, providing for me, ordering my life for me, leading me where He wanted me to go, to what He wanted me to think, and to what He wanted me to do. Someone else was taking care of everything for me. Someone else Who cared about me cared for me. And Jesus gave me the assurance that because of what He did on the cross and the faith He gave me to trust Him, I would see Heaven and live there forever. He delivered me forever from Hell.
I don’t know the future of Snowball, Puff and Tiny. I may never know what happened to them after they arrived at the shelter. They could die. They could survive. They could wind up in a home with a cruel person who mistreats them. They could wind up in a home where someone who cares about them cares for them for the rest of their lives. But they were rescued from a hopeless situation in a basement window well, and presented with the possibility of a bright and pleasant future, something they would never have if someone, in fact if several someones had not interceded on their behalf. They needed someone who cared about them to care for them.
As it turns out, I needed the same thing. And so do you. I don’t know just where or when you were born in sin. But I do know where and when you can be found. It is where and when you come to Jesus in faith trusting Him to lift you out of your window well of sin, frustration and loss to the wonderful salvation He provided for you in dying for you on the cross. Jesus cares about you, and because He cares about you, He can care for you. Come to Him in faith today.
