Tonight, upstairs in our spare room, there is a little girlie who almost can’t stop smiling. I wonder if she’ll sleep tonight. I hope so. Tomorrow is a BIG day!.
Tomorrow, a beautiful black gal, a sister in Christ, and one with a compassionate heart, is going to do Mya’s damaged hair into something our African friends call “kinky Twists.” No harsh chemicals, no trying to make black hair look like something it isn’t — just a loving woman, with decades of experience, plying her trade with expertise and love.
When I think of the miracles that have led up to this, my heart is so incredibly awestruck, I can scarcely know how to respond. How I pray for an outcome that is beyond “acceptable” in the eyes of this girlie (and her Mama). What I want is “knock your socks off” results — “WOW!” and “Awesome!” and “It’s so beautiful, I can’t believe my eyes!” kinds of results.
And I find it easy to believe those kinds of miracles tonight.
There is another story.
Several weeks ago, one evening, our grandbaby was tramping over the farm with her Daddy, and came upon a little scrap of a Siamese Kitten, crying piteously in the barn. This precious two year old promptly sat herself down beside it, and began crooning to it, “Don’t worry. We will take care of you. It will be alright.”
I’ve had lots of exposure to abandoned farm kittens. It almost never turns out right. Even with bottles and attention and even instructions from vets. It just isn’t a good situation. Even when a kitten is doing well, it can suddenly up and die for no reason at all. So when Charis appealed to her daddy for help and he promised to do what he could to help the kitty, my heart sank. I couldn’t see how this would ever work out okay. But I had this rush of admiration and love for our Beloved Son in Law. It was like he knew how important this was in the greater scheme of things, and he jumped into the responsibility with both of his hands and all of his heart.
Deborah had attempted to save a kitten several months ago, and had purchased a nurser and kitten formula, and I remembered exactly where they were, and gave them to Jesse to help in any way that was possible, and they hauled the little cat home and proceeded to attempt to get it to drink, poop and pee. These three things are not automatic for small kittens. The one thing in their favor was that the kitten was old enough to have its eyes open, and it started out very healthy. It had just been abandoned the day that Charis found it. But it took quite a while before the kitten would drink. It took even longer to produce any kind of a bowel movement, and many, many prayers went up for this little scrap of life. Gradually, it began to do very well, and even began to use the litter box in the last week or so.
Yesterday, Jesse and Chris had company. The kitten, originally thought to be a female, and named Elanor, (changed to SIR Elanor) was busy and happy and entertaining. He has become more and more beautiful as the weeks have passed, but is still quite a baby. They still have to bottle feed him, and he certainly bears watching. But he seemed his normal self last night when they put him down for the night.
So it produced a great deal of dismay when Christina came out this morning and found him lying in his litter box, almost unresponsive, breathing heavily, and just very, very sick. Mid morning, she called me and said, “Mom, Charis has something she wants to tell you.”
She put Charis on the phone, and I heard this little voice say, “My Kitty is sick.” There was much crackling on the line, then, but then she said, “I prayed for him.” Christina told me how she had prayed a touching prayer on behalf of her precious kitten and then Christina said, “Mom, I’m pretty sure he is on his way out. I don’t see any way that he is going to make it. He won’t drink his bottle, he just lays there, breathing really, really heavy.”
My heart sank. I was in the middle of things that didn’t take much thought, so I began to pray fervently for that little kitten. “Lord,” I kept saying, “Please honor the faith of Charis, and touch that little kitten. You said that you care about the sparrow that falls, and so I know that you care about Sir Elanor. Please undertake for this situation, and if it is your will, could you please heal the kitten? For the sake of a little child?”
I called a couple of hours later to check on things. “How’s the kitten?” I asked, with a great deal of apprehension.
“To tell you the truth, Mom,” Christina answered, “I am pretty sure it is probably gone. I just haven’t gone out there to look because I don’t see how it is possible for it to survive.”
Grammy redoubled her prayers.
Imagine my joy when a few hours later I got a text message that said, “Elanor drank her bottle and seems to be be back to her hyper self. Praise the Lord!” (Yes, Christina thinks of him as a “her”)
Wow! What wonderful news! This Grammy’s heart could hardly contain her joy! Tonight, Lem and Jess were here for supper, and Jess and Chris and Charis came, too. Charis walked in, beaming. The news continues to be — well– miraculous! The kitten is back to his normal self.
I know that God has lots of stuff to do — there are wars and famine and trafficking and disasters and SIN! But I am glad tonight that I have a Heavenly Father that cares about the sparrows that fall. And believing that, I know He cares, too, about a little girl’s hair, and sick kittens, and a little girl’s prayers.
Yes! Praise the Lord!
Delaware Grammy 