Shadow is a one-woman cat.
I can’t say the reverse is true. I’ll cuddle up to any cat at almost any time. Shadow is more discriminating.
When we first brought Shadow into her new home as a kitten, she was terrified. She wouldn’t come out of her carrier for any urging or enticement. I spent hours coaxing, petting and doling out treats. After several days, she emerged and staked her claim. Our two-bedroom apartment was her territory. I was her one and only human.
Her relationship with my husband was more convoluted. He’s not a “cat person” by nature. No instant bond formed between them. In fact, sparks of jealousy erupted into hisses. (I won’t even tell you how Shadow responded to that.) Glares were exchanged. After a while, my husband decided peace was in his best interest. Only after extensive campaigning, though, did Shadow relent and allow him the occasional stroke or chin rub. The process took four years.
Even now, after another four years of exposure to my husband, my parents and many other humans, Shadow is selective in her attention. My husband remains surprised when Shadow cuddles up to him. When she jumps into my mother’s lap, Mom sends a press release to the local newspaper. Okay, that might be an exaggeration. Such events are noteworthy, though, and never last long. Shadow always returns to her one and only human.
Her single-minded devotion can serve as an example to humanity. Shadow seems to know by instinct what we humans have to learn over and over and over again. You can’t serve two masters.
In the parable of the dishonest manager in Luke 16, Jesus says, “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (16:13 ESV).
Shadow doesn’t divide her loyalty. She acknowledges the existence of a few humans aside from myself, but she serves only me. (Actually, she serves no one, but we’ll cover that in another post.) I am her focus, the center of her world. Her love and devotion aren’t shared; they come to me in concentrated form. No one else is worth looking at or listening to.
Shadow could have chosen differently. Her neurotic paranoia aside, she could have striven for my husband’s attention. She could have presented herself as a friend to every human she met. Or, she could stick with her first choice.
Like Shadow, we all have a choice. It’s the same choice Joshua presented to the Israelites millennia ago.
“And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15).
We can choose many things aside from God. We can choose money, fame, popularity, career, relationships or other religions. Whatever it is, though, we have a choice. We choose to center our lives on those things or to center our lives on God. We may even say we serve God but still run after the things the world tells us are important. In that case, whom do we love and whom do we hate? To what are we devoted and what do we despise?
I’m sure you know the answer. Whatever you pursue is what you love. You don’t fall wildly in love with someone and then visit them only on Easter and Christmas. You don’t truly love something and then ignore it.
Shadow doesn’t ignore me. She keeps tabs on me. When she doesn’t see me, she seeks me out. She normally doesn’t have to, though, because she’s already at my side. She’s my shadow, a constant presence. She doesn’t divide her devotions; she has only one human.
“But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
Yes, we could all take a lesson from Shadow.
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