My Earliest Story

            It is funny the things we remember. I remember how much Dad loved to tell my earliest story. When he came in one day from working in the field, I met him with my first story. The condensed version with just the bare facts, no elaboration, but told in a little one’s animated manner impressed him.

            My story was comprised of these four words, “Kitty, Nanny, skunk, shovel.” Grandma and Mother interpreted the events for Dad.

            One of the kittens had been attacked in broad daylight by a skunk. Grandma Gladys managed to get a shovel and opened the window above the endangered kitten and its predator, a skunk. Somehow, she maneuvered and wielded the shovel and saved the kitten.

            This can be characterized as a cute adventure story from a toddler told with spot-on accuracy. Yet, as with so many happenings in our lives, a spiritual application can be made.

            We humans identify with the endangered kitten. Each of us are vulnerable to the consequences of sin – illness, death, disappointment, and so many other sorrows or pitfalls.

            The predatory skunk is so like Satan, the enemy of God and of God’s most valued creation – humans. Lucifer, another name for Satan, is quoted in Isaiah 14:14 when he boasts of his planned takeover of heaven from God, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.”

            Jesus uses terms like murderer and liar to brand Satan in John 8:44. In the same gospel, Jesus teaches so beautifully of His love as the Good Shepherd for His sheep. In John 10:10, where Jesus promises abundant life to those who follow Him, He describes the sheep’s enemy who comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

            Nanny, my maternal grandma, intervened in the violent attack on the tiny kitten. The comparison breaks down a bit since Nanny had not created the kitten as God created us, but she was the caretaker of the farm cats that we had. Her concern demanded she actively intercede to preserve the kitten’s life.

            Finally, her tool to destroy the skunk was a shovel. It demanded only courage on her part. God’s tool to break Satan’s hold on humans was the cross, one of the cruelest methods of execution ever devised. In God’s perfect timing, He sent His Son, Jesus, to live and give His life on the cross to redeem us from the clutches of Satan, His archenemy.

        

This is the only cat permitted indoors. Mother was adamant
in her training that if we mishandled a cat and felt the cat's
displeasure we deserved the consequences. Cougar, this
cat, was not the kitten that tangled with the skunk. 

           My first story of only four words has a cuteness and illustrates how concern and care for animals had been fostered early in my little soul. How much greater is the true story of God’s love for us, the sacrificial death of His perfect Son, and the defeat of Satan--the nemesis of every thing good, holy, just, and connected with God! May we tell that story every chance we get. My nanny would love that.