A Pastor heard the pleading sounds of a cat outside his house in the backyard. He found a kitten had climbed a tree but was too scared to climb down. The tree was not sturdy enough for him to get up there to rescue the kitty. He devised a plan of tying one end of a rope to the tree and the other end to the bumper of his car. He could simply drive away making the tree bend down so he could grab the cat. The Pastor did not anticipate what happened next. The rope broke. The tree became a sling shot hurling the kitty far into the air and out of sight. Feeling sad, he prayed, “Lord, I commit this kitty to your care.”
A few days later, he met a parishioner at the grocery store. She had a cart full of cat food and kitty treats. He remarked, “I thought you didn’t like cats.” She replied, “Pastor you won’t believe this. My daughter was bugging me for a cat. I told her, ‘I’m not getting you a cat but if God drops a kitty from the sky, you can keep it.’ I felt confident this would never happen. My little girl went into the yard, sat down on the grass, and prayed that God would send her a kitty. All of a sudden I see this little cat flying through the air with all four paws spread out. It landed right in my daughter’s lap. She replied, ‘See Mommy, God sent me a kitty from Heaven!’ I couldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. My daughter delights having this cat as her best friend. The Pastor never told mom what really happened.
This is Holy Trinity Sunday when we honor who God really is. God is a family of love. Three Persons in One God who delight in each other for all eternity. It’s like a mom and dad who delight in their newborn child. They just stare at their baby’s face for hours, delighted that their love is now made visible in a new person. (This delight lasts until 2:30 a.m. when baby screams for a bottle.) God also delights in the people He created. “Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ… God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure.” (Ephesians 1:4-5) It pleased the Father to drop down His Son to earth from the sky to make us one with His family in Heaven. God made you for one purpose – He wanted to have a bigger family to love. God adopted you because “I found delight in the human race.” (Prov 8:31) It was God’s eternal plan for you to be with Him in Heaven even before you existed. Please don’t do anything bad to mess this up. I jokingly told a parishioner, “When I get to Heaven I want a big mansion with a Pittsburgh Steeler banner hanging from the roof.” He replied, “Father, that’s not Heaven. That’s hell.”
I was deeply touched by a video I saw of a girl graduating. The video shows a stepfather holding his phone to record the moment his stepdaughter received her diploma. He raised her from a young child. Now he beams with pride on this day, celebrating the next journey of her life. What stepdad did not know is that she legally changed her last name to his just days before the ceremony. When they announced her using his last name, he broke down, lowered the phone, and placed his crying face into his hands. He was overwhelmed by what he had just heard. The stepdad loves her like his very own child. She returned the love by making his name her very own. “She’s the graduate, but he received the best gift.”
God feels the same way about you. He delights in adopting you as His very own. God likes when you call Him “Abba, Daddy.”
