daily java

Daily Java:

Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. (Hebrews 5:8)

It is interesting that the Bible in many translations doesn’t have the word cat in it. Psalm 73:7 does mention These fat cats have everything their hearts could ever wish for! But other than that metaphor, cats are never mentioned.

But they surely are at our house.

We have a young cat and my daughter has one a little old. They have lived a life, for the most part, of quiet.

Then Sunday, my daughter got a dog, a Jack Russell Rough terrier. Rough means she has a lot of hair. She is seven years old and is a breed that was designed to go hunt small animals: moles, etc.

The only problem is that she has never seen cats and as far as she is concerned, she is fulfilling her destiny in chasing the cats.

And yesterday, it was a battle royale. Cats screaming, dog barking, animals flying. It was a real, honest to goodness dog and cat fight. Which the dog won.

The cats are not brave cats. They have been alone too long and have never had to fight a force like this dog.

By the way, Proxy is her name. This is one of the oddest names I have heard for a dog. It means substitution, like maybe they wanted something else – a zebra? – and couldn’t get it so they got Proxy the Jack Russell.

But Proxy has it in her nature to chase small animals. And chase she does.

But it has fallen my lot to be the disciplinarian. I am the bad guy who has to teach the dog the word No. She absolutely does not respond to it at all otherwise. So I have to teach her.

All of God’s creatures are happier when they have boundaries. Children need them, animals need them, adults need them. A life of anarchy is a fearful one. We need direction and instruction.

Even Jesus needed direction. He was human. And as a human, he needed to learn what was right and what was wrong. The difference between us and Jesus was, I believe, that he was a quick study. He learned. We usually don’t. When he was given correction, it corresponded with his inner nature and he learned.

But without that learning, without that teaching, Jesus would have been worthless as the perfect offering.

Consider this. Out of all the women of the universe that could have been his mother, God chose Mary. She was the one who was able to teach him.

I will be glad when the dog/cat wars are over. They are extremely stressful not only to the cats, but also to me. I seem to be the disciplinarian. But then I am also the one who had to put the old dog, Prissy, out of her misery. No one else could.

And I guess no one else can do this.