CHAPTER THREE
TILLY AND THE MORNING GLORIES
CHAPTER THREE
When Tilly awoke a few hours later, she was hungry and thirsty. She had to have water. She had to eat. Slowly, she began making her way out of her box. Sticking her head out she checked out her new surroundings. The white and orange kitten was still asleep on his high perch. The striped cat was nowhere around. The dishes filled with food and water were placed on small mats along the side wall. The litter box was in a back corner.
Heading straight for the food and water, Tilly ate until she was full, and took a long drink. Afterward, she walked up to the window that separated the small room from the long hallway. It was the same hallway that the man had carried her through early this morning. It had been quiet this morning. Now, all the doors to all the small rooms were opened. The hallway was filled with cats walking around, and people who were setting up food and water dishes. Tilly could hear the cats talking to each other. Some voices were calm and quiet, while others were loud and angry. She could hear the sounds of food bags being opened. Every now and again, a loud shout could be heard coming from one of the small rooms. All the noise frightened Tilly, and she retreated to her cardboard box.
Back inside her box, Tilly saw that the clean rags were all scattered about, not neat at all. She wanted to make a soft bed for herself, so she pushed and pulled, moving the clean rags this way and that way, piling them up. Finally, she lay down to rest. Her little bed of clean rags was soft and comfortable. It fit her small body just perfectly. Curling up on the rag bed, Tilly did her best to sleep, but all the noise of the shelter, the banging doors, the voices and footsteps, kept her awake.
After a while, Tilly heard the sounds of soft paws walking across the room. She was surprised when the big, striped, cat she had seen this morning poked his head into her box. Fearful that he might be mean, she backed up and showed her teeth. She was going to let this intruder know she was prepared to defend her little piece of private space.
“Now, none of that,” said the striped cat. “We’re all in this together. Friends.”
Tilly stepped back even farther. She really didn’t trust this intruder, but she wasn’t a fighter at heart. She preferred to get along with others. The big cat looked friendly enough. He didn’t try to scare her, or push her around, even though he was twice her size. He wasn’t like Freddy, all mean and selfish, she thought to herself, and for a minute her thoughts turned to what had happened at the nice lady’s house. Lost in her thoughts, it took her a minute to realize that the big cat was talking to her.
“I’m Gershom,” he said. “I’ve been here for years, so I like to help the newcomers feel welcome.”
“I’m Tilly,” she replied. “And I’m glad you’re so nice. But, I don’t know how anyone can feel welcome her. It’s a scary place to me. I thought I had found a good home, and I ended up here.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Gershom said. “Lots of cats find good homes from here. Lots of them get adopted.”
“What’s adopted?” Tilly asked. She had never heard that word before. She wondered what it meant.
“It means to hug someone close to yourself, and treat them like your own. It means to take someone and make them a member of your family,” Gershom explained.
“So that means they get a new family, and get to live in a new home, where they are loved and wanted,” Tilly said.
“Yes,” Gershom told her.
“But, you said you’ve been here for years,” Tilly answered. “Don’t you want to be adopted?”
“Well,” Gershom answered, ‘not everybody gets to leave from here. Some of us live out our lives right here. I’m not even looking to get out of here. But none of that matters, because I’ve already been adopted into the best family of all.”
“How can that be, if you’ve been here for years?” Tilly asked.
“Oh, this adoption had nothing to do with where you are. It had to do with how you live out your life, and what happens to you after you die,” Gershom explained.
“Die?” Tilly asked. She had seen cats who couldn’t make it on the streets die. The thought of dying frightened her. She didn’t want to talk about dying.
“Not just dying,” Gershom continued, “but living forever with God, and His Son Jesus, after you die. It’s about having the Holy Spirit of Jesus living inside of you while you live on earth. It’s having a part of heaven inside you. That way, you have heaven inside you while you live here on earth, and then you go inside heaven after you die.”
“Oh,” said Tilly. She knew about God. She had heard about God. She knew He was the creator of everything. He was the creator of people, cats, plants, the clouds, and everything. “But what does all this have to do with being adopted? And, who is Jesus? I’ve never heard of Him.”
“He is the Son of God. He left a beautiful, wonderful place called heaven, where He lived with His Father God, and the Holy Spirit, and all the angels, and where there was no death, and He came here to tell everybody about His Father God. God gave Him the power to forgive the sins of anyone who loved and believed in Him,”
“What’s a sin?” Tilly asked.
“Well, it’s when you do things that hurt others, or you don’t respect and love God like you should. Everybody sins. When Jesus came here, He was the only one who never sinned. He was the Perfect One. He loved us so much that He died for us. You see, we were away from God because of our sins. Jesus wanted us to be close to God. So, He came here to earth in the form of a man, except He did not ever sin.”
“So, He’s dead?” Tilly asked.
“Oh, no,” Gershom answered. “After He died He came back to life. Then He went back to heaven to live with His Father. Once He went back to heaven, He sent a helper, called the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes to live in everyone who loves Jesus, and accepts Jesus as their Savior. The Holy Spirit always helps us to do things the way Jesus would do them. He stays with us all the time. He is the Spirit of Jesus, and He can be everywhere, all the time, and in everyone who believes in Jesus. Once He comes to live in you, that means you are adopted into God’s family. You are His family on earth. And, Jesus brings you to heaven when you die. Then you become part of His family in heaven. Then you live forever with Him in heaven. That’s the best family, and I’ve been adopted into it.”
“I want to be adopted into God’s family, too. How can I be adopted?” Tilly asked.
“Say this prayer after me, and you’ll be adopted into God’s family.
So, Tilly listened to Gershom and repeated after him, saying: “I believe Jesus is the Son of God. I believe He came to earth, and died, and lives again forever. I believe He went up into heaven. I know He died so that I could be forgiven of all my sins, and live with Him in heaven. I want His Holy Spirit to come live inside me. I love you, Jesus, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I want my name written in heaven so that when the day comes for me to stand before You, I will hear You say to me, ‘well done, good and faithful servant. You may enter into heaven’. I want to be in Your family on earth, and I want Your Holy Spirit to help me be more like You, Jesus. Amen”
After they prayed together, Tilly said, “I feel like I’m not so scared in here anymore.”
“You’re adopted into God’s family now,” Gershom told her. “That can never be taken away from you. You’re saved, and going to heaven now. Jesus wants to take all your fear away from you, and give you His strength. He loves you, Tilly. When you love someone, you don’t want them to be afraid or sad. Jesus has loved you for a long time. He’s waited for you to let Him into your heart. He loves us, even when we don’t know Him at all.”
Tilly was glad to know that she was part of God’s family now. She walked over to the door of her room, and looked down the long hallway at all the small rooms, and they didn’t seem quite so scary now. She noticed that some of the lights were off. Some of the cats who had been walking and running freely were returning to the small rooms.
“It’s getting close to closing time for the place. The people will be leaving soon, and everyone’s having dinner, and getting ready for the night,” Gershom said as he got up and began walking toward the door.
“Aren’t you going to eat in here?” Tilly asked, looking at the dishes of food and water in the room.
“Oh, no, the dishes in this room are just for the newcomers. You, and him,” he told her, pointing his front paw at the orange and white kitten, who was resting on his high perch on the wall.
“You know, Tilly,” Gershom said. “I don’t even know what his name is yet. He stays to himself, up there on his perch. Sometimes I wonder if he just pretends to be asleep so he won’t have to talk to anybody. I hope I get to meet him soon. I know his heart must be broken, because everyone who comes in here feels like they’ve been left behind. Sometimes I talk to my friends who are out on the streets, and they tell me that some cats would rather be out in the cold and rain then to come in here. My workers tell me that.”
“Workers?” Tilly asked.
“Yes. We try to reach as many cats as possible, including those who are out on the streets, and teach them about Jesus and how much he loves us. We want them to be adopted into God’s family. Anyway, I go out in the yard they have here for us, and my outside friends come to me and tell me what’s going on around the city. Sometimes I know all about a cat before he or she even gets here. But, no one knows this little guy,” Gershom said, looking at the orange and white kitten.
“No one talked to me about Jesus when I was out on the streets,” Tilly said.
“That makes me sad. We try very hard,” he replied. “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”
“What’s that you said?” Tilly asked.
“It’s something Jesus said. There are so many who need His love and forgiveness, and so few who are willing to go out to tell others about Him. I’m lucky to have my friends who do that for us,” he told her.
“Well, I have to go have my dinner now, Tilly,” Gershom said as he walked to the open door. He got all the way to the door then turned around. “Tilly, would you like to go with me? There are a lot of other cats here. Are you ready to go out, and be with them? It’s alright if you don’t want to. But if you do, I’ll stay close to you.”
Tilly looked out the door of her room. Even though it wasn’t as scary out there as it had been earlier in the day, she just didn’t feel ready to leave the small room.
“Not today, Gershom, maybe tomorrow.”
“Alright, Tilly, I’ll see you later.”