~by Michele Gregoire

February 6, 2012: February’s Recommended Read–Purr-ables from Heaven

A couple of years ago I discovered a delightful inspirational book written by three Christian women entitled Purr-ables from Heaven: Devotions for Cat Lovers. The authors are M.R. Wells, Dottie P. Adams, and Connie Fleishauer and they have created a work grounded in scripture and reflective of a broad array of human experiences. The book is divided into 5 parts, each titled and subtitled and including from 7 to 15 vignettes, opening with a Foreword and containing brief bios of the authors at the end.

Opening with a dedication “to the cats and humans we hold dear, and to the Author of our faith, who called us to the task” and thanking the Lord, the book proceeds with acknowledgements and the Table of Contents, and then photos and descriptions of the cats whose stories are related throughout the book. Each of the five parts of the book has a cat-related title with a religious subtitle. For example, Part I is ‘Let’s Get Purr-sonal” and the subtitle is ‘God Draws us to Himself.’ Further, each chapter is titled and subtitled similarly, with a suitable quote from a variety of sources. At the end of each chapter there is a scripture verse relating to the message of the story, followed by a brief section called ‘Consider This’ that invites the reader to think about anything in her or his life related to the point of the preceding vignette.

The focal message of the entire book is this analogy: we love our cats unconditionally, but their behavior towards us is like our behavior towards God, whose love for us is boundless. Truly, the parallels are remarkably apt! We desire to give our cats unconditional love, all the time, but how often are they really allowing it and accepting that love (and the handling, petting, etc. that often goes with it). It’s pretty much on their terms most of the time. How like our relationship to God – we love Him on our terms more than His. He is always there loving us unconditionally and desiring that we respond in like manner, but at the best of it most of us are woefully inconsistent in our response to God’s love. This book is filled with examples that illustrate how similar we are to our pets, and it imparts a sense of God’s love for us, as well as our frequent lack of reciprocal response to Him. The book is replete with lessons that we could all learn again.

There are a total of 57 vignettes divided into the 5 parts of the book. Parts I, II, and IV are the longest. Part II is entitled “Stretching Exercises’ with the subtitle ‘God Stimulates Our Growth;’ and Part IV is “Scratching Post Guidance,” subtitled ‘God Teaches Us His Ways.’ The shorter two sections, Parts III and V, are titled “To Hiss or Not to Hiss” (‘God Cleanses and Refines Us’) and “Who’s Top Cat” (God Reigns over Us for Our Good’). All of these 57 stories are touching in different ways; many are heart-wrenching and share difficult experiences, such as the loss of premature twins by one of the authors (Part I: “Boundless Love: When We Can’t Be There, God Is”). She begins by describing the self-imposed boundaries one of her cat’s exhibited; Kitty would only go to the orchard when following the author’s daughter as she walked to her grandparents’ home a couple of miles away, or the end of the driveway, and no further. She went from that opening to how she and her husband could not cross the boundary of heaven to be with their infant twins and shared the story of their birth and nearly immediate death. Her brother was with her when the second twin died but he was not allowed into the nursery. She then compares how Kitty’s boundary was the orchard and her brother’s was the glass wall of the nursery, which he could not cross, but his prayers could. These story elements emphasize that God is with us, He has no boundaries and His love knows no limits. This chapter closes with Psalms 139:7-10. “Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” Finally, it concludes with a short ‘Consider This’ reflection for the reader on loved ones who are separated and how you pray for them.

Part IV contains a cute story with a very significant message – “A Cat in Doll’s Clothing: Be Who God Made You”, with an opening quote by Judy Garland, “Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.” The writer opens with a story about dressing her cat in dolls’ clothes when she was a child, and how the cat really did not appreciate it. In retrospect, she elaborates on the analogy of stuffing herself into other people’s personalities or talents, and how they don’t fit her any better than the doll clothes fit Fluffy. In her vignette she shares how she coveted other’s looks, clothes, and the like. Finally, someone with whom she shared this tendency made a comment to her she would never forget, that “…if I’d be myself, I’d attract the friends I was supposed to have. They’d be the friends who were right for me because they’d be drawn to the real me, not some person I was trying to be that I wasn’t.” The ending scripture quote is Ephesians 2:10 (NLT): “We are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Finally, the ‘Consider This’ segment focuses on one’s individual gifts and how to use them for God’s glory.

I really wish to thank our Christian sisters who put this book together. They have shared many personal cat stories and experiences and linked them quite convincingly to analogous events in our lives, with scriptural messages that derive from these situations and lead us to resolutions in our own lives. With 57 cat stories there is one for almost any situation; just a tiny sampling was covered in this review. The book can be read all at once like a collection of short stories or as a go-to inspirational text for special times when one needs a particular story. Many of the authors’ cats from their childhoods lived outdoors or were farm cats, and they populated several of the vignettes, but most of the cats that were pets of the authors as adults were indoor animals. I particularly recommend this book to cat lovers but would encourage all stewards to read it for the inspirational value of the many and wide-ranging stories.

Visit Michele’s GOOD BOOKS ARCHIVE