I have a cat that acts more like my mistress. OK. Hold on. Sounds weird? Well stick with me here... When I sit down she climbs on my lap and rubs her chin on my chin. She lets me kiss her and pet her. I am the only living person she does this to. When I lay down in bed, within minutes she is there laying on me, licking and rubbing my chin with her chin and cheek. It is nice to have a living thing make me feel so loved.
However if I look deeper, am I really being loved? Fact is, I am the only person in my house that has a stubbly chin. This cat discovered my chin as a young kitten and sees me as her personal face scratcher. OK the bubble is burst, she loves me because I fill a primal need of hers. The pleasure she gets from getting her face scratched by my chin. :-(
This lent me to think more about this. This sweet, soft, gentle animal is just that... an animal. She has no concept of loving another being (except her babies for a short time) for the sake of the other being. She can't. No animal can... except for humans. Humans are the only living animals that can choose to love another living animal in order to solely benefit the other living animal.
The sad reality is that some humans never quite break from that animal instinct. Have you ever met someone who, when they do something nice for you, you know they are expecting something back. You know they are ultimately doing it for their own self-interest. Some may argue that all humans are like that. I would agree to a point. I would say that all humans are born like that. It is a sin nature and a need to self-preserve. Unfortunately some never grow out of it. Usually it is some childhood trauma that stunts their emotional growth like a parental abandonment or abuse.
Ultimately, my friends, there is hope for those who are only capable of serving themselves. When God's Holy Spirit enters your heart you will find the peace and the ability to love and give to another and you will find that you don't have that pang that has always followed a loving deed. You know the one where you feel like your good deed must be followed by a payback greater than or equal to what you had just given. That is the power of Christ in a persons heart. You will feel the desire to do things and not get paid back. You will feel the desire to find those in need and help them - anonymously. The joy will be too much to hold in; joy you certainly never felt when you used to keep score and definitely something my poor little cat will never feel.
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