I've been adopted!

If you receive my newsletters, or if you read any of my blog postings for last August, you’ll know that my moving from Africa to live back in Europe brought a considerable financial challenge with it. I don’t receive a salary for my work; instead I trust God to provide for all my needs. The most usual way that He does this is through financial gifts from Christian friends and family. Living in Europe is three or four times more expensive than living in Africa, and so I’ve needed to trust God for a pretty substantial increase in my monthly support.

Over the past couple of months, as I became aware that I’d been well and truly “adopted” by a stray cat, I realised that the responsible thing to do would be to have Tamba spayed, so that she wouldn’t have any more litters of kittens. But spaying a cat costs 80 - 100 euros down here, and I knew I couldn’t afford that sort of money - certainly not at a time when my monthly income was barely enough to cover the costs of rent, food and other more necessary living costs.

But even as I thought about this dilemma, I was reminded very clearly of something that happened back in the beginning of 2006, when I still lived in Cape Town. I received an email from a man I hadn’t yet met at the time (the husband of a friend) saying that he had received money for Christmas and, when he prayed, he felt that God told him to send the money for my dog. Well, this was rather mysterious, as there seemed to be no obvious reason why either of our two dogs would need such a large sum of money.

Just over a week later, we were out of town for a few days and a young friend was looking after our house and dogs. When we got home again, we discovered that one of the dogs had had an accident and that part of her beautiful collie tail had been broken off. She needed to have the infected part of the tail amputated so that the skin could be stitched over it again. And yes, you’ve guessed it: the cost of Zola’s operation was exactly the amount of money that my Scottish friend had sent “for my dog.”

Later that day, I was reading my Bible and I had to smile when I came across Psalm 36 vs 6: “You take care of both people and animals, oh Lord.” This rather unusual incident spoke to me very clearly that I have a heavenly Father who is interested in every single detail of my life - and even in providing enough money for me to take care of my animals.

Last month, as I reflected that I couldn’t justify spending money on something as unimportant and “unnecessary” as spaying a cat, I simply prayed: “Lord, you gave me a home in Cape Town and you even provided for my pets there. Now I’m transitioning to a new home in Spain and, if I’ve been permanently adopted by this cat, I know that I can trust You somehow to provide a solution for getting her spayed.”

I remembered that I had read an article in a local newspaper about an organisation that trapped, spayed and re-released feral cats, so I decided to try emailing a few animal charities in the area and asking if anyone knew anything about this group. Before very long I received an email from them, saying that they hold spaying sessions every four to six weeks and that they would be very happy to spay my cat simply for a donation. All I needed to do was wait until the kittens were weaned, and then make an appointment to take Tamba in for the operation. We’ll be doing it a couple of weeks from now, just before the LDC begins here in Spain, and around the time that the kittens will be going to their new homes.

It may seem insignificant or unimportant - after all, it’s only an animal - but this little incident reminded me yet again that I haven’t only been adopted by a cat. Like we read in several different Bible verses (Galatians 4 vs 5, for example) I have also been adopted into the family of God. I am His child and I have a heavenly Father who provides for all of my needs - even something as ordinary and unreligious as a spaying operation for a cat!

I don’t know what your needs are this week, and whether they seem big or small, important or not so important in the scheme of things. But I do know that, if we’re living our lives for God, He is faithful to take care of all kinds of practical needs that might otherwise be a concern for us. (Matthew 6: 33) You can trust Him to take good care of you and your needs too.