Kittens, Lazarus and the Rich Man

From Sunday's gospel:  Jesus said, "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table;  Luke 16:19-20

This story of Lazarus and the rich man is the story of a man who ignores a problem that God has placed on his door step.  We want to take his to task, but how many of us often ignore the man or woman who stands on the street corner begging for what few coins might come their way?

Last week was a difficult week.  We started the week facing Sam's pending heart cath getting blood work and doing the pre-admittance work.  On Tuesday, I received a letter from the insurance company telling me that certain work needed to be done on the house and the completion date they gave me was Sunday 9/29. I managed to contact a contractor who came to submit a bid. In the midst of all this, a feral cat moved her kittens into our garage during a rain storm.

So on Thursday we left the house at 5 am and I didn't come home until 9 pm.  Sam's day procedure had turned into a two day procedure and they kept him overnight.  Got a few hours sleep, cleaned up and was back at the hospital by 6 am on Friday.  The procedure on Friday was longer.  I went back to the house mid-afternoon and was confronted by the unmistakable stench of dead animal.  I got our son, Andy, to go look for it as I headed back to the hospital.  He didn't find anything. Ii started going in and out the front door  to avoid the stench while i looked for someone to come to take care of the problem.

I brought Sam home about noon on Saturday and finally had time to pay attention.  When i finally got out to find out what has going on, I found two live gray kittens laying on the body of their dead sibling.  I rescued them and then found another kitten in another part of the garage.  My friend, Leah, came and took the kittens to mother them a bit.  One died later, but the other two are doing well.  When Chris from GuardTech came on Sunday, he found the mother cat dead under the house.

The thing is, I should have twigged a lot earlier to the cat problem, but I was distracted by the many things going on around me.  I ignored a potential problem even to the point on going in and out another door to avoid it.  I understand how easy it can be to ignore a need that is at your gate.  I was preaching on Sunday and found this all to be very pertinent to the gospel lesson and therefore excellent sermon material.

I'm glad to say this week is looking much better.  Sam is up and moving around very well, at least two kittens survived, and the contractors are supposed to begin work today (weather permitting.)  God does provide, even when we flounder around, - - and life goes on.