Calvary Episcopal Church
Memphis, Tennessee
THE CHRONICLE
January 4, 2004
Vol. 49, No. 1

God Answers Our Prayers
(My good friend Burton Carley from the Church of the River in Memphis, TN, offered this story to me recently, and claimed it is true.)
The pastor of a church had a kitten that climbed up a tree in his yard and then was
afraid to come down. The pastor coaxed, offered warm milk and thought of every
trick he could, but the kitty would not come down. The tree was young and not sturdy enough to climb, so the pastor decided that if he tied a rope to his car and slowly drove forward so that the tree bent down, he could then reach up and get the kitten. He did all this, checking his progress in the rear view mirror. He figured if he drove just a tiny bit further, the tree would bend sufficiently for him to reach the kitten. But as he inched forward, the rope broke. The tree went ‘BOING’ and the small kitten was instantly catapulted through the air and out of sight.

The pastor felt terrible. He walked all over the neighborhood asking people if they’d
seen his kitten. Nobody had seen her. So he prayed, “Lord, I commit this kitten to
your keeping,” and went on about his business, feeling sad.

Two days later he was at the grocery store and met one of his parishioners. He
happened to look into her shopping cart and was amazed to see cat food and
supplies. Now this woman had no fondness for cats and everyone knew it, so he
asked her, “Why are you buying cat food when you can’t stand cats?” She replied,
shaking her head, “You won’t believe this,” and told him about how her little girl had
been begging her for a cat, but she kept refusing. Then two days before, the child
had begged her again. The mom said she tried to make it a teaching moment. She
said, “You can’t get everything you want when you want it. You have to learn to
wait.” She added, “Well, if God gives you a cat, I’ll let you keep it.” She told the
pastor, “I watched my child go out in the yard, get on her knees, and ask God for a
cat. And really, pastor, you won’t believe this, but I saw it with my own eyes. A
kitten suddenly came flying out of the sky, with its paws outspread, and landed right in front of her.” You might call her, ‘the MagnifiCat.’

God has a way of surprising us when we least expect it. God answers our prayers.
The Christmas story is the most wonderful surprise in human history. God heard the
prayers of the people of Israel, and sent God’s Son to love us. Jesus lives with us still and loves each one of us like brothers and sisters. He surprises us now, with gifts so rare and wonderful all we can do is say “Thank you, God, for sending Jesus to love us.”

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