Six God Lessons from My Cats

My heart always does a little dance when I turn my head just so and spot one of my cats napping blissfully in a patch of sunlight. Their whole body seems perfectly relaxed, like every fear has just melted away and no troubles can possibly spoil anything. A tiny smile seems to rest on their lips, and their eyes are closed. Everything is peaceful and perfect. 

Watching my cat nap in the sunlight makes me realize how important light and rest and peace are in our lives. In 1 Thessalonians 5:5, the apostle Paul says that we are “children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.” That is the truth. God’s light illuminates everything on this beautiful earth and drives out all darkness, death, decay, fear, and pain. 

When we take some time to sit and rest, or even nap, with the glorious love of God washing all over us, it’s even more clear. We were not created to worry. We were not created to spend our lives rushing to and fro, distracted by silly concerns. Rather, we were meant to praise and glorify God with every ounce of our beings. Our day should be filled with good work and the happiness that comes with knowing we are His. 

It can be so good to give everything over and simply be, to rest in the stillness, and to know that He is God, and all is well.

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When they’re cold, restless, bored, or grumpy, sometimes I just find my cats cuddled up next to each other. Other times, maybe they’ll just creep over and tuck their little bodies tightly into some little crook in my arm or the curve of my side or the bend in my knee. They get all snuggly and draw comfort from the warmth of another, and in this, it is like they understand the true meaning that God intends for us with all the relationships He blesses us with. 

We are meant to draw comfort from Him, and we are also meant to draw comfort from each other. We were not created to walk this world alone, in solitude. Rather, we are to cleave to each other. A husband and wife are meant to become one flesh. Likewise, friends, siblings, and neighbors are meant to bolster each other and keep each other strong. 

In Ecclesiastes 4:12, we’re reminded, “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

3. Run around Just Because It’s Good for Your Body 

Every once in a while, my cats get what I like to call “the zoomies.” For seemingly no reason they will just get up and race around the house. Maybe they’ll chase a fly, or each other, or they’ll invent some reason to literally bounce off the walls. 

I’m convinced this is because they know their limbs need exercise. They need to move and run around and remember what all those body parts are supposed to be doing. Sure, they are house cats, and they don’t need to stalk their prey or hunt for their food or live every moment in fear of a predator. But they also know it’s important to remember they have bodies, that they are not meant to be sedentary beings. They are meant to move and run and play and get those zoomies.

Likewise, it’s really good for us to set aside all the seriousness of life sometimes and play. Whether we’re racing around the playground with our kids, we’re just going for a run in our neighborhood, we’re building a shed, or we’re hiking up a mountain, moving the body just feels right. It releases pent-up energy and gets all of those juices flowing. It releases toxins and regulates hormone levels.

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One of my cats behaves as if he’ll never get another meal in his life. Every morning when I emerge from my bedroom, he meows as if he hasn’t eaten in days and then scarfs his breakfast as if it might be days still before he eats again. The other one is hungry, too, but before he eats, he wants some love. He rubs up against me and wants me to stroke his fur and scratch under his chin and behind his ears. He wants to gaze into my eyes and connect with me. 

Studies show how important human touch is. There are cultures that routinely strap babies against their chest, especially babies born at low birthweight, because they know that the comfort of human touch, particularly skin-to-skin time, helps infants thrive. There’s something about the closeness we can share with another that fills us in a way even food cannot. Cats seem to know this instinctively. They rub and press and roll around against us because it feels good, because they know it’s good for them. It helps them thrive.

We would do well to remember that in our own human relationships. Hug each other. Clasp hands. Share space.

5. It’s Good to Be Clean

All three of my cats seem to be obsessed with staying clean. All day long you can spot them, leg in the air while their tongue goes to town on their toes, their chest, and all the little crevices. They clean and they clean and they clean, and then they clean some more. Perhaps they really enjoy it, but I think it’s for a more important reason: They’re hardwired to keep themselves clean so they don’t get diseases. They know self-care is important to their longevity and their comfort and their overall health. They clean because they’re supposed to, and I think it says a lot about the concept that our bodies are temples. 

Sometimes we humans treat our bodies as if we were invincible. We eat whatever feels good at the moment, whether that’s fast food or sugary treats. We plop down on the couch and flip through TV channels instead of getting exercise or being industrious, and then we endure issues like heart disease and obesity and diabetes and all sorts of other things. Now, some of these things are hereditary and have nothing to do with lifestyle, but other illnesses befall us because we don’t properly take care of our bodies as if they are gifts. We take them for granted. We wake up and go about our day, and then we wonder why we feel creaky, yet we haven’t stretched. We wonder why we always seem to get a cold, yet we don’t practice proper handwashing. 

We would do well to take a lesson from my cats spend a lot more time than we do on self-care, whether that’s cleaning or other healthy habits.

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My cat Leia is extremely clear about her need for personal space. If you come up to her and she doesn’t nudge toward you, giving you permission to pet her, and you proceed to invade her space, she will growl and then scratch you. She frequently likes to climb to the top of the cat tower and perch up there, far away from everyone else, just watching. She likes her alone time, and she prioritizes it. She guards it fiercely. And when you interfere with that, she makes no bones about letting you know.

Yet we humans often have such problems with boundaries. We say “yes” because saying “no” makes us feel guilty. We give until we’re an empty shell. We allow toxic people and abuse into our lives because perhaps we think maybe it’s impolite not to do so.

Leia models a good lesson: Every once in a while we all need to go off by ourselves and reset.

I’m not saying that Jesus growled, hissed, and scratched at people when they disturbed his private time, but he, too, modeled the importance of going off alone to pray and take time to reset and reconnect with his Heavenly Father. It’s good for us to do the same.

These are just a few lessons my cats are teaching me. Can you think of others?

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