Faith Lessons Learned from Amara & Dimitri: Part 1

I always wanted to write an essay on the faith lessons I learned from my cats Amara (black cat inside the kitty tower) & Dimitri (grey cat on the back of the chair). This is a long topic, so I will post it in 2 parts.
Amara and Dimitri are brother and sister. Amara came to me in April 2002. B/c Amara walked around the house crying a lot, I knew she missed her siblings, so I went back for Dimitri 2 weeks later. Neither kitten was terribly affectionate. In fact, when I tried to snuggle with them, they would scoot away from me and give me a, “Why are you bothering me?” look. It did not stop me from loving them. Faith Lesson: God never stops loving us, even when we pull away.
In July 2002, I came home from work and found Amara wedged between my computer desk and the wall. Her eyes were unfocused and she could not walk. I rushed her to the vet. I held her in my arms and cried while I sat in the waiting area. She was only 5 months old and so tiny. I remember thinking how much I loved her even though she had only been w/ me for 3 months and despite her aloof ways. To this day I do not know what happened to her, but she had some sort of brain injury. She stayed at the vet for 3 days until the swelling in her brain went down. Faith Lesson: God is willing to hold us in His arms and cry over us when we are injured. Amara was so out of it that I don’t know if she realized I was even there. Just as when we are so wounded we don’t realize God is by our side, but He is there nonetheless.
I never ceased trying to win the cats over and would still treat them as the other cats by hugging and kissing them. One day I picked up Dimitri, fully expecting him to protest, but to my surprise, he snuggled into my arms and began to purr. He was surprisingly content in my arms, and never asked to be put down. I think he would have stayed there all day if I had let him. That was a rare moment, however, and he continued to care less about me after that. Faith Lesson: In hopes that we will someday return His affection, God never ceases to reach out, waiting for the day we will relax in His arms and allow ourselves to feel peace.
To be continued…
Note: I got the name Amara from T.V. I was home sick one day from work & watching “Hollywood Squares.” It was kids’ week and one of the contestants was a cute little Asian girl named Amara. I thought it was a pretty name and wrote it down for future use in a book. It means eternal. Dimitri is named from Dimitri in “Anastasia.” And yes, there are characters in my novel named Dimitri Ivanov & Amara Manzanares.