God’s Comforting Words When Sorrows Just Come By

I am a cat lover, and right now, I am distressed and in grief over the loss of a cat staying in the veranda of my landlady’s compound. The cat left three small kittens which were not totally weaned from suckling milk from their mother’s mammary glands. My distress for the loss of this mother cat is compounded with my guilt because on the day she went missing, I did not feed her in the morning as I decided to focus on my physical exercises that morning. When I was ready to feed the cat at around 11 am, I could not find the mother cat anymore. On the next day, she was still nowhere to be found. I checked her kittens and she was not with them. In the afternoon, the kittens started to cry out loud for their mother. The kittens could see and walk already but were not big enough to be away from their mother.

I cried so much over the loss of the mother cat and realized how dangerous the neighborhood where I live could be, especially for cats. My husband brought up the idea that Biology students studying in a nearby university and lodging in neighboring houses could be responsible for the loss of the cat as they are required to dissect cats and study the biological system of a cat’s body. Or the cat could have foraged for food in the neighborhood and got harmed by a drunkard or a drug addict. I looked around the neighborhood and did not find a trace of the mother cat. I cried a lot as I asked God to forgive me for my negligence in feeding the hungry mother cat, and I wished that I could turn back the clock and rectify my behavior: I would feed the mother cat and she need not forage for food in the neighborhood, and so she would not have been harmed and went missing. Such regret, such repentance, such grief! Others would say I should not care so much since these are just cats, but I have a heart for cats and I am sure God loves cats, too!

In my sadness as I pray that the kittens will survive and learn to eat the food and lap up the milk mixed with water that I and my landlady’s helper give them, I turn to the Bible, to the words of Jesus for comfort and assurance. In Matthew 10: 29-31, Jesus said: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows”.

There it is! God sees everything and cares even for the little sparrows. And not one of these sparrows will fall to the ground (to die) apart from the will of the Father. This means that God permits things to happen, even the loss of my pet cat which left three small kittens. Nothing will happen without his permission. This sorrow that suddenly struck me made me repentant and caused me to turn to the words of Jesus for comfort and hope. And His words assure you and me that unexpected losses and sorrows like the one I experienced are permitted by the Father’s will, but this does not mean that He does not care for He said we human beings are worth more than many sparrows. God is all-knowing and all-seeing; He knows the number of the hairs on our heads. He is the all-seeing, all-knowing Spirit who cares even for the little sparrows as He feeds them with their food though they toil not. And He cares for each one of us for He knows you and me and every situation we find ourselves in.

God knows, and He cares! Let us believe these words of Jesus and be comforted and assured of His love in this world of tears.