As I sit on the couch, our family’s pet cat, Lily, is curled up next to me. Sometimes she lifts her head to look at me with begging eyes. Of course I pet her, and she immediately starts to purr. When I stop, she puts her head back down and continues her peaceful nap. What I find so inspiring is the way this kitty is so expectant and trusting. When she looks up, she seems to know that I will show her love and she falls fast asleep trusting that she is safe and secure.
Until recently, my sister was always called Lily’s “mother.” However, when my sister left for school I became our cat’s guardian. And though Lily experienced a change in mother figure, she has never lost love.
This change caused me to think about the way people sometimes confine love. In Christian Science we learn that God is Love and that real Love is limitless. To me, it isn’t that I replaced my sister as this cat’s “mother,” but that we both express God’s constant care. We find this loving care expressed in our lives by asking ourselves daily: How am I seeing love expressed today? Am I convinced that it comes in only one way or from one person? We should always be ready to embrace all forms of love and recognize that it doesn’t come in only one way.
