Job 12:7, 9, 10-But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee…Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing…
I am writing this preface to a very unique book from a Christian horse camp in Canada. I am on my 21st trip to minister with the gracious folks of the CSSM (Canadian Sunday School Mission) at Hampton Bible Camp. I started this ministry in 1986 and have only missed three camps in 24 years. An event took place at the first chapel service that aged me more than you know. I asked if any in the room of 80 campers and counselors was over 24 years of age. No hands went up! It struck me that every soul in the room wasn’t even born that first summer I traveled from my home in Maine to Hampton, New Brunswick! I was certainly ministering to an entirely new generation, and it reminded me that the Lord was still working on me and working through me.
So what a better time or place to start recording the spiritual affects of one of God’s creatures than at a Christian summer camp that uses animals as a draw for the bringing of young people into an environment where the Good Lord can be introduced and where His Dear Son Jesus can be exalted. Away from the distractions of the modern world and the devices that keep kid’s minds deluded with ungodly things verses the godly virtues of the Christian life. While waiting my next chapel I thought it time I started on a writing project that I have had on my heart for nearly four years now. A spiritual look into the practical teaching of a simple tomcat I call “Eddie, Eddie, Eddie”, and what he has taught me about his Creator and mine.
When you spent your time surrounded by kids and animals, you have a tendency to turn a little childish yourself. This same affect comes each and every time I drive onto the campus that is Hampton Bible Camp. I have written of my exploits at this summer mission in a book I call “Fishing at Hampton”. The barnyard that is Hampton also takes me back to the days of my youth when I was raised on a working potato and dairy farm; another place and time in my life when I was surrounded by animals. Hampton Bible Camp has 24 horses and a newly born colt. Chickens and dogs and two cats make up the rest of the herd, but because we are in the woods we have an assortment of birds in the trees, ducks on the pond, and fish in a stream that cuts directly through the middle of the property. After five days in this environment, it is not strange that I would be thinking of the greatest cat in the world especially since Hampton now has cats (Ed and Kim Dickinson are the directors of Hampton Bible Camp and though they live just down the road from the camp their two cats often travel up to see them as they did this morning. These two active felines even joined us for staff devotions today!). Besides I have just gotten off the phone with my dear wife Coleen who called for prayer requests for the weekly prayer meeting of the Emmanuel Baptist Church where I have pastored for the last 18 years. In our conversation she told me how Eddie had been searching for me since I left on Sunday. To say we are close and Eddie has dependence issues would be an understatement.
Eddie is a stray cat that came into my life after he was abandoned by his owners when they left our neighborhood in Ellsworth, Maine in 2005. Eddie sees me as his savior and deliverer and best friend. He acts more like a dog around me than a cat. He comes when I call, he follows me wherever I go, and wonders and wanders when I am gone. We have a very unique relationship almost verges on the unbelievable, yet I now have a church full of people that know of it and support it. Eddie has even become the church cat, and everybody makes exceptions for “Eddie, Eddie, Eddie”. He spends the bulk of his days at the church rather than at the parsonage, and he sees the sanctuary of the church as his. In this arrangement some very important spiritual lessons have come to me while watching and observing this multi-colored feline. Often while watching him, or listening to him (yes, he can talk, more later) I have been inspired with a Biblical precept that I thought I ought to record, so here I am. I have come to a place where inspiration from God’s animal world is everywhere. Job said it best when he told us in the verses printed above that we ought to go to the cats (beasts) and ask them to teach us something. If God can cause a donkey to talk why not a cat! If God can use a raven to feed a prophet why not a cat to feed a preacher! If God can use the colt of a donkey to take Him to the people why not a cat to lift Him up to a pastor that is always in need to know God better?
I believe that it was not by accident that Eddie came into my life just a few short months before I embarked on the greatest spiritual mission and most important adventure of my life: a trip to Southern India to teach at a small native Bible college. Granted, I didn’t observe much at first because I wasn’t looking or listening, but after four years into our relationship I know different. What is so strange is that I am by my very nature not a cat lover; that would be my wife. We have always had a cat or two in our home for our 36 years now, but I wasn’t friendly with any, including our current cat Precious Patience Pearl, who is neither ‘precious’, ‘patience’, or a ‘pearl’. (Note, our latest Christmas family picture) But my wife loves her and I have tolerated her for over nine years now. Eddie, however, was different from day one, and as you will see throughout this series of devotionals an amazing teller of godly truth, especially in the area of the attributes of God. That is why I have given this series of short stories and sermons the title of “Eddie’s Exhortations”, or Meows From The Manse (an English word for parsonage), for Pearl will have to be included in the telling of most of these stories! I know some will call me crazy and the stories I tell beyond belief and maybe a bit sacrilegious because I dare to use a cat to tell you of the things of God. I hope before you pass judgment that you will read these accountings and will check the Scriptures against what I write about Eddie.
I told you at the beginning that this will be a unique book indeed, but my fervent prayer is that you will discover with me the wonderful virtues of God through my faithful friend Eddie. If the heavens and the earth can declare the glories of God (Psalms 19:1-2) then why not a short-hair American cat called “Eddie, Eddie, Eddie”!
Postscript: Welcome to the new website of the Emmanuel Baptist Church of Ellsworth, Maine. We started this site to give us another avenue of exalting our wonderful Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and the friendly, family fellowship of our church.