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So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless (1 Corinthians 15:58, NLT).
A tornado passed over my house recently.
It didn’t touch down, but knocked off the upper parts of several trees. My neighbor’s house was pierced by a large Cottonwood branch.
I was watching TV and noticed it getting dark. I turned on the weather channel and saw a “tornado warning” and the predicted track had an arrow pointing at the location of my house.
Darker outside now, and the wind began howling. I started to go to the basement and realized, “Uh, oh, my wife’s cat is on the back porch.”
I don’t like cats, and I confess that for a moment I thought, “HHHHMMMHHM, this could be an opportunity.”
However, being a wonderful husband, I went out on the back porch.
Anya! Anya! Anya! (Cat’s name.)
I couldn’t find her.
I’ve never been at the bottom of a tornado before. Wind was blowing debris in large circles. The debris was flying through the porch. While looking for the cat, I was ducking tree branches.
Where is the dumb cat?
Anya! Anya! Anya! (Still the cat’s name.)
Our minds slow down and we think lots of things during crises. I had this weird thought:
I remembered the Wizard of Oz, with houses, debris, and even a cow swirling around. In my mind, I saw my wife’s cat, already caught up in the tornado, with outstretched legs and tail, going round and round in the air!
Anya! Anya! Anya! (Thinking of calling her other names now.)
Then I noticed the dumb cat staring at me from three feet away.
Anya sees me and walks away. I’m risking my life trying to save this cat. We are in the middle of a tornado, and she decides to play the stubborn cat game.
Again, my mind slowing down, I thought, “Instead of ‘Martyred For The Faith’ on my tombstone, it’s going to read, ‘Died While Saving a Cat!’”
The indignity!
Please don’t tell my wife, but I grabbed Anya’s tail and dragged her into the house.
The cat tried to scratch me!
When I got Anya into the house, the wind stopped. Whew, I’m okay, the cat’s okay, and my wife should be proud of her hero husband!
When Barbara came home, I told her that in the middle of the storm, I went out on the back porch to find her cat. Her comment…
Is Anya okay?