Cats & Horses

I came across this picture I took recently and spent a few moments just staring at it.

(Forest Hill, MD)

Pictures will do that to you sometimes. You don’t realize at the time you take it what you are possibly capturing. In all the times that I have looked at this picture, I never took the time to notice the cat that was walking around among the horses.

I kind of chuckled because of the symbolism I found in this picture as it relates to my life at times.
You know, there is a big difference in purpose for a horse and a cat. Most horses are fenced in, but everyday they wake up with a designated purpose of carrying riders around or running freely around the pasture. Their boundaries (fences) are set for them and no matter how many times they try to stick their heads through it to eat, they remain where it’s comfortable. They are large enough creatures that most of them could break free, but they choose to remain.

The cat is a whole different story though. I know we have some domesticated kitties who stay inside, but I want to look at the ones who are loose to crawl all over my Jeep after I clean it up!! (SOAPBOX)
These cats have options. They can choose to walk among the horses or they are small enough to slip through most openings and roam freely wherever they choose to go.

(Bel Air, MD)

I wonder which of these creatures would I rather be? So many would be quick to say, ‘I would definitely want to the options that the cat has. I would never want to be fenced in and told where my boundaries are.’ 

So many desire to live in this kind of world, yet what we fail to realize is the indecision that comes with it. When you are allowed to simply roam around searching for what purpose really is, you never stake your claim to what you’ve truly been called to do.

The horse realizes that this is what I was created for. They are trained to realize that their boundaries have been put in their life to find purpose. A horse might be confined to a pasture, but he/she does get a constant supply of hay and fresh baths given frequently.
The cat will wander aimlessly digging through the trash and searching for the next freshly washed car to put their paws on.

In reality, both of these creatures have the option of being free…but I can imagine the horse would tell the cat any day: If you knew what I knew, you would stay in this pasture.

(Forest Hill, MD)

Truth be told, I feel that most of us are symbolically given the options of the cat. There are a few horses in this world whose future is planned for them, but most individuals are given the gift of choice. We can crawl under fences and search the world for what we were created for. It is a beautiful gift that Christ has offered to us. What we must be so careful of is that we don’t wander so far off that we get away from where we are fed. For when we do – a life of purposeless living begins.

Psalm 23
1 The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. 
 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, 
he leads me beside quiet waters, 
 3 he refreshes my soul. 
He guides me along the right paths 
for his name’s sake.  (NIV)