A place for everything, and the cat in every place

"our citizenship is in heaven"

Philippians 3:20 

I read an interesting quote the other day, from C.S. Lewis:

"The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: but joy, pleasure and merriment He has scattered broadcast... It is not hard to see why.  The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world, and oppose our return to God... a happy love, a symphony, a merry meeting with our friends... have no such tendency.  Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home."

As I write those words, my cat is outside, sitting on the patio table.  It's in the low 60s today, mostly cloudy, and she is an animal who prefers to be warm.  By that I mean, she's a cat.  So I'm surprised that that's the resting place she chose, but she did. 

Earlier today she was curled up in my daughter's lap as she did her schoolwork. 

Before that she was asleep in her basket in the kitchen.

Before that she was on a rug in the hallway.

Before that was in my lap, and before that we were both in bed and she was asleep on me.

She also likes the windowsill in my daughter's room, and the arm of the couch in the living room, and sometimes the counter or the table where we do school, and baskets of clean laundry, any my son's lap and my husband's computer, and my desk, and brown paper bags, and in the linen cupboard, and in empty boxes...

She finds comfort in lots of places, but never anyplace for long.  Or she loves one place for several days, and then avoids that spot for months.  Like she can't seem to find a place that's perfect.

loooooooo[ppppppppp - Please believe me when I tell you that my cat just walked across the keyboard on my laptop, and pushed those buttons.  Seriously.  That's too funny to be made up.

Anyhow, as I was saying... I think that's kind of what Lewis was talking about.  How we can search and move and rearrange our lives here on earth, without ever seeming to feel like we've found our place.  Something's not right, or our hearts feel restless.  And that's because we don't belong here.  We are citizens of heaven, after all. 

It makes me appreciate, a little more, any sense of comfort and joy that I have here.  The people around me, the places I love, activities and events that bring me happiness.   As Lewis so eloquently stated, there are pleasant inns along the way, but it's all part of a journey.

~ "Moreover You led them by day

with a cloudy pillar,

And by night with a pillar of fire,

To give them light on the road

Which they should travel" ~

Nehemiah 9:12

~