We have a black and white kitten in our clinic that is meowing up a storm. She wants to come out of her cage and play! She ls lively, energetic, affectionate and a survivor of animal abuse. Someone put a rubberband on her tail so tightly, it killed half her tail, leaving it a bloody, dried, rotten, shriveled string of decayed tissue and bone.
Then, they dropped her off at an animal shelter whereupon she was presented to me for emotional and physical repair. The physical repair is relatively simple. I need to amputate the tail a few vertebral segements up to get good closure and reduce the risk of systemic infection. The emotional repair… well… she has taught me about emotional survival and specifically about Grace and Mercy. Pastor Dan defined Grace and Mercy for me the other day in an astounding way.
Grace, he said, is GETTING what you DON’T DESERVE; Mercy is NOT GETTING what you DO DESERVE.
This little kitten (I will name her Gracie) has given the human race the most incredible gift of Grace. Although a member of our kind injured her, and we therefore deserve her condemnation, fear and distrust, she has given us Grace. She has forgiven us, despite the fact that we don’t deserve it. Has anyone ever truely hurt you so badly that part of your body or spirit was rotted away? And if so, were you able to give the Grace that this kitten is able to offer? It is astounding.
We deserve her punishment. She has every right to scratch and bite us as a JUST response to the pain we caused her, but she grants us Mercy.
She doesn’t punish us eye for eye, tail for tail. She allows her judgement to be waived upon the human race and grants our species Mercy.
One kitten that knows more about Grace and Mercy than most of us. So, as I fix her tail today, I am rewarded in kind by the lessons she taught me, and I have become just a tiny bit more emotionally healed.
Have you ever been able to grant Mercy to someone? Amazing to think about…..
