What a Lost Cat and a Bank Reconciliation Taught Me About God's Love
It has been a tough week.
We had to say goodbye to our kitty of 16 years. She had some serious declines in her health, and life would have been unbearable for her if we hadn't made the choice to put her down. So we said our goodbyes to our Mila while she purred and snuggled in our arms and went peacefully. She had a good long life.
It made me think of the kitty we had before Mila: Sophie. Saying goodbye to Mila hurt, but we got to be there. We held her and knew how her story ended. With Sophie, we never got that.
Sophie was a gift to me from my husband in the first year of our marriage. She was such a good and sweet cat, and we had her for several years. We had to move from the house we were renting and quickly move into an apartment. During the move, Sophie got lost. We never did find her.
It was a different type of heartbreak. Where was she? Was she safe? Did she feel lonely? Did she know she was loved by us? Did she know we were searching tirelessly for her over multiple days? She must have felt so confused and lost, having been moved to an unfamiliar location and immediately not knowing how to get home.
If only she could hear our voice. If only she could see us. She'd find her way back home.
We would have done anything, would have given anything we had, to get her back.
This reminds me of a story Jesus told, in the book of Luke. In chapter 15, Jesus was hanging out with some shady characters, the misfits of their day. The religious people didn't like it.
Luke says:
“By this time a lot of men and women of questionable reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, “He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends.” Their grumbling triggered this story. “Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Celebrate with me! I’ve found my lost sheep!’ Count on it—there’s more joy in heaven over one sinner’s rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue.”
Luke 15:1-7 (MSG)Jesus then tells two more stories, the lost coin and the lost son. Each is about someone who refuses to let what is missing stay missing. Or, in a term that is very near and dear to me as an accountant, someone who reconciles what is missing.
Let me provide context for what reconciliation means in my career. Part of what I love about what I do is finding the missing pieces. It's sort of like a big puzzle. When our general ledger doesn't match the bank statement, I get to find out where it went wrong, how it got missed, and make it right. It brings everything into balance again. Everything is accounted for. Reconciled.
This idea of reconciliation is a powerful one, and I think we gloss over the word.
Scripture has many references to reconciliation with God. Here are just a few:
2 Corinthians 5:18-20 (NET): And all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s trespasses against them, and he has given us the message of reconciliation.
Romans 5:10-11 (MSG): There is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms (reconciled) with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life!
Ephesians 2:13-16 (NTFE): But now, in Messiah Jesus, you have been brought near in the Messiah’s blood—yes, you, who used to be a long way away! He is our peace, you see. He has made the two to be one. He has pulled down the barrier, the dividing wall, that turns us into enemies of each other. He has done this in his flesh, by abolishing the law with its commands and instructions. The point of doing all this was to create, in him, one new human being out of the two, so making peace. God was reconciling both of us to himself in a single body, through the cross, by killing the enmity in him.
Think about that. God, the creator of the universe, knows all, sees all, and came to earth in human form. He brought dignity to the women, widows, and orphans. To the outcasts, the injured, and the ill. He was murdered for his message. And what is that message? Reconciliation. He would do anything, even die, to show his unending love for us. For you. For me. His kingdom (or, as I prefer, Kin-dom) is not complete, not in balance, until we all know and feel that wholeness.
Not only that, but the 2 Corinthians passage tells us we now have a part to play. We are to partner with him in showing that restorative love and acceptance to others. The women, the widows, the orphans. The outcasts, the injured, and the ill.
I think of what the “misfits” in Luke's story must have felt, hearing Jesus talk. I think of how they may have felt seen and accepted for the first time. I think of how a famous rabbi sat with the people the religious establishment had written off and spoke plainly about how God sees them and wants them, in order for things to be right in the world.
Just as we searched for Sophie, I believe God is in a constant state of wanting to find those who have been on the outskirts. I believe he sees those who are in a place of despair. Of loneliness. Or those who are completely fine but don't feel complete and whole in their core.
He is constantly seeking the missing pieces and celebrates when one hears his voice, sees his face, and comes home.
We never got our reunion with Sophie. But in the stories Jesus tells, the search ends differently. The shepherd finds the sheep, the woman finds her coin, the father runs down the road, and every one of them throws a party.
I want to leave you with this passage from Colossians. I love the way this reads. I encourage you to take a deep breath and know that God loves you. He sees you. And his heart is for you, for me, to find complete wholeness and belonging, because that is what brings everything back into balance.
“He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so expansive, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.”
Colossians 1:18-20 (MSG)
