For Barbara Today

My friend Barbara lost her beloved kitty last night.  Cocoa had been a part of her life for a number of years.  A few years ago I shared this story with Barbara, but I think it bears repeating today.  Who knows, perhaps it will help someone else today.

I have a very, very wise mother.

When I was growing up, our family had a huge, black, Persian cat.  The cat was unusually long-suffering of the five little rascals in the house and made a good family pet.  The cat had one bad habit.  It liked to lay in the middle of the street, and eventually....well.....

The next morning our Mother told us the sad news that our cat had died.  I ran to my room, buried my face in my pillow and sobbed.  Finally Mom came upstairs, picked me up and held me in the her lap in the rocking chair.  When I was able to talk, she asked me why I was crying so hard.  I told her that I was sad because the cat had died and the cat couldn't go to heaven so I would never see it again.  Mom was quiet for a few minutes and then she spoke words that have stayed with me the rest of my life.

"Sweetheart, Heaven is a wonderful place and a place of perfect happiness.  If you need our cat to be there in order to be perfectly happy, then it will be.  If the cat is not there, you will be so happy with heaven that you won't even miss the cat.  The thing to remember is that you can trust our Heavenly Father to provide everything you need to be perfectly happy there"

Don't I have an amazing and wise mother?!

Yes, that's the same rocking chair