Beautiful and Special (You are too!)

I'll let you chew on the photo for a minute....

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Yes, i am letting my baby raccoon nibble my ear...

you know how toddlers are, curious fellows to say the least.

Did I mention I miss my wild little friends from last year?

But this isn't what this post is about REALLY, God told me to share with you what He said to me the other day.  Actually He asked me to share it because some of you don't hear His voice that often in your lives and He wanted you to know what He thinks about you too.

I was sitting in my living room early one morning and my black cat Hope came to sit with me.  Hope has a story, sad to start but with a beautiful ending.  

This isn't a cat story per say; as much as it is a story about love and rescue.  

Hope was abandoned.  She was all of 6 months old when we found her.  She was crouched in a corner of my Mama's barn.  She was sickly looking and crying. She was starving to death.  She wouldn't let us close to her because she was feral, or mostly feral (wild).  However, God has given me a way with hurting creatures and she slowly learned to trust me.  The veternarian I took her to said she wasn't sure she would live; so I named her Hope-though she wasn't truly mine. 

 I named her Hope as a prayer before God, as I hoped she would live.

For days she hid under our bed, when we finally got her home.  She coughed and coughed, she wouldn't eat.  I was afraid she was going to die.  

She was afraid of men.  She was afraid of noises.  She was basically just really afraid.  The love I offered her wasn't safe to her, she didn't know she could trust me.  Slowly she came around.  Honestly it was years before she began to surface when guests came to our house- new voices made her terrified.

For over 8 years I never heard her purr.  One day my oldest beauty told me she purred and I couldn't believe it.  I thought maybe the purr in her had been broken.  Now if the conditions are right Hope will sit with me and purr very quietly.  

She feels safe and can accept our love. 

 She knows whose she is and how we feel about her.  

Hope needless to say brings me great joy.  I love her in a way that comes when you get to be part of healing.  I love her in a very deep and special way because not only did she lived- even when the vet had to squeeze maggots out of her skull before she could come and be ours, but she has overcome.  Death and misery didn't claim her, instead God reached out and answered my prayer for something little to love while we waited on one of our adoptions that seemed to be taking too long. (Guatemala...which never happened for my family...but led us later to Ethiopia where our children were....

but I am now chasing a rabbit).

As she sat on my lap a few days back, I told her out loud how beautiful she was and how special she was to me.  She began to purr louder than usual.  As I loved on her the Holy Spirit came, He said, "The way you feel about Hope, I feel about you."

'really' was my thought, 'why?'

 He told me that I needed to hear it out loud.  He told me that He wanted me to start saying it to myself as a reminder.  I was uncomfortable at first, as I don't really feel this way about me.  But in obedience I did it and do you know what...it made me feel that way.

So give it a try.  Press into God and wait on Him.  But if you don't hear His voice, know that He sent this love note for you too.  He thinks you are beautiful and special and He wants you to feel His love for you. 

 I pray that you ponder it and that His love overwhelms you in ways you NEVER expected!

You are beautiful and very special.  He only made one of you, since the beginning of time.  He has given you unique (unto you) gifts and talents.  He loves you and wants your heart to be filled with that beautiful God (agape) love.  So take it, tuck it in your heart, wrap it around your mind and begin to believe it, because you know what, its true!