Chomping the head off a squirrel

I pulled in to my garage recently and saw one of our cats lying under the car. He looked perfectly content, even though it’s hot and kind of smelly and the floor is hard concrete. It could even be dangerous if someone came along and started the car up. (My brother had a cat jump up in his engine one time; that was gross.)

I said to myself, “This is crazy. It’s 90 degrees outside and we have this big, air-conditioned house with food and couches and beds that he could lay on, and he chooses to lie under the car. We’ve even provided him with a way to get into the house. All he has to do is go through the cat door, but he’s chooses not to. He’d rather lay in the dirty garage under the car.”

Why does he do that? Because he’s a cat. It’s his nature to lie around in smelly garages and be perfectly content doing so. And instead of eating out of the food we provide him, he’ll go out and chomp the head off a squirrel. Because it’s his nature; he’s a cat.

He doesn’t really care that I’ve provided him everything he needs and have given him an easy way to get to it. He wants to live his way because he’s a cat; it’s his nature.

Even if PETA came along and said, “How can you let that cat lay in the garage and chomp the heads off of squirrels? You’re cruel and unusual. Put that cat on the air-conditioned couch and feed him shrimp scampi.” I couldn’t change anything. Even if they dragged me away in chains (which they might do since they value animals more than people), I couldn’t stop it. All I could do is plead, “I tried to give him everything but he didn’t take it. It’s his nature; he’s a cat.”

It made me think that that’s how we are with God. God has provided us with everything we need and a simple way to get to Him (the cross) and on our own we choose not to, because of our nature: our sin nature. We choose it because it’s the way we’re made. We all have our own unique versions of lying on the garage floor and chomping the heads off of squirrels, but even though the paths we take are different, the nature is still the same. We’re sinners; we don’t seek God. When the door is provided we don’t open it unless the Spirit takes us by the hand (or in some cases the neck) and takes us through it.

It drove home for me the verses in Romans that say, "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

The next time you look at a situation and bemoan, “How could God allow that?” check yourself. It’s very likely you’ll find the person is just following his nature.