Animals God Can Use

Balaam's donkey, Jonah's whale, Peter's rooster, David's sheep,Daniel's lions, Noah's dove....just a few instances of how God wove an animal into the theme of someone's life. I've had on my mind lately the special way God uses animals to accomplish His purposes in a life, and considering that this may not have ceased with Bible times.In fact, I was able to discover an interesting motif in my own case of a tiny kitten! Yes, a helpless baby kitten was used in my saddest of days and my gladdest of days: with a death and with a birth. Want to hear how?

The saddest day began with shocking news of sweet little Susana's death. Years before when she and her older sister were star pupils in the Sunday School we started, she had led in broken-hearted prayer for her family, as her mentally- unstable parents often quarreled. Just entering her teens now, she found no way out but suicide. Stunned by the news, we asked ourselves why we had not reached out to her, and were overwhelmed with the reality that it was too late to do anything. At that moment kitten cries had me rushing outside-- only to find three-week old Mimi had fallen from the fourth floor balcony! You see, Mimi was the offspring of an abandoned cat, who in turn abandoned her soon after birth. Hearing her desperate cries one night I had climbed out of bed trekked out in the dark in search of the little orphan, and tended, fed, bundled, and soothed her extreme distress....and not slept all night. Since we were soon leaving for America, a few days later I taught a friend of Christian's to feed Mimi with a syringe, and he adopted her. Now she was mortally wounded, and being able to minister to this severely hurting creature, so fittingly similar to the painful case we were grappling with, was used to help handle our feelings of helpless grief. After Mimi's life ceased, we went to Susana's funeral, an ordeal for everyone. I helped transfer Susana into the coffin, which was so narrow, her hands shot up, spilling the toys she was holding, reminding that it is not possible to take anything with us out of this world. The parents made frantic dashes toward the coffin periodically, only to be restrained; the sister fainted, and Frank carried her out. In the midst of the wild grief, the dear godly grandmother was upheld. And so was I, scarcely realizing how God had used the sad accident of a dying kitten to prepare for this agonizing hour.

The gladdest day was preceded by an incident four weeks earlier, in which we had gone to pray with a seriously injured man. I was called away from the prayer session to the living room to help with the birth of a kitten. The mother cat was tied in a pan so that her placentas could be harvested for medicine for the injured man; but the second kitten was breech, and all efforts to extract its head had failed. After prolonged effort, I had a dead kitten in my hands. Thinking how valuable would be the experience, I put everything into resuscitation, and was rewarded a few minutes later with a gasp that was followed eventually by normal breathing of a healthy kitten. Fast forward four weeks into May, and I am sitting on a train bunk, with my Bible beside me, dwelling on (and in) Galations 5: "walking in the Spirit". Just then there came over the loudspeaker the first of three calls for a doctor in the next car. On the third call, it was specified that a birth was imminent....and that's all I needed to hear. A minute later I was entering the curtained- off end of the sleeper car where indeed a birth sounded imminent, though I had a hard time believing it could be that quick, with the givens of a Chinese first child ( that it was an "illegal" second I did not learn till later.) The mother said the baby was a few weeks early, but it felt big enough; yet something about the position puzzled me. I put it from my mind as I realized it was time to welcome the baby NOW! I was in for a big surprise, for this little one literally put her best foot forward! A footling breech, and no back up! There was no panic, just Galatians 5 to stand on. Before the second foot was located, in came the dad from a hard seat (cheaper) car. He sighed and silently paced, until I asked him to lift his wife into an upright position. It appeared that the baby girl had her hands up praising the Lord...then, after those were out, came the perilous part: the head! Clear in my memory was the experience with the breech kitten, which I now saw the value of. Calling aloud on the Name of the Lord, I then marveled at how He undertook for us. Joy spread all through the train as the news was relayed that the baby had arrived safely. The parents asked me to name her, and almost at once I chose "Meiyi" for the "Beautiful Will of God". Honoring the event, and connecting it with the most wonderful of all births, the sweet strains of "Silent Night" wafted through the train as I cuddled the freshly- dressed, sweet Meiyi.

Reflect: what animal has God used in your life? Would you share?