Parables of the Pastor’s Cats

The Mystery of the Empty File Cabinet

A few days ago, my wife came into the study around mid-morning to tell me that the file cabinet in the garage was empty. The news set off a reaction at our house that looked very much like an alarm at a fire station. We quickly bundled into boots and heavy sweatshirts and headed off into the brisk autumn weather to search.

You may not have a file cabinet in the garage, and ordinarily we don’t, either. But in this case, the lower drawer of a modular plastic file storage unit had been lined with old towels to hold six little kittens and their mother, a young calico named Smoky. The kittens had stayed in the cabinet since they were born, which we figured had been three weeks, more or less.

But now they were gone. We could find Smoky, hanging out near the back door, where she could beg an occasional extra snack. But the little ones had vanished. So we went off to look for our kittens. 

To anyone who knows country cats, this may not seem like much of a mystery, or much of a priority. Around here, barn cats come pretty cheap. Most people have too many wandering around the farm, and almost no one will take cats if you want to give them away. We could replace lost kittens in a day. But we grow easily attached to these
little creatures. They are more than just mouse-catching machines.

So we searched, as if we had lost something valuable, like a coin, or a sheep. If we lose a quarter around the house,we sweep the floor and paw the drawers until we find it. Some farmers in this area raise sheep, and they count their sheep regularly. They know how many sheep they have, and if one is missing, they want to know why. They leave their sheep in the pen and ...

Wait. This is all too familiar. It would appear that when God loses something, he does the same thing that we do, except for two rather significant differences.

He is much better at searching.

And he is looking for you.

Can you imagine what God feels when he finds an empty chair where we should be meeting with him in prayer … or an empty space in church where we should be sitting or working … or an empty file cabinet where we should be sleeping quietly …

Okay, that last one really only applies to cats. But there it is. Jesus himself says that God searches, carefully, urgently, even if the only thing missing is … you. We found our kittens, by the way. Just a bunch of barn cats, but we looked for them. If your place is empty, don’t think your absence has gone unnoticed. Someone is looking for you.