Cat Scratch Fever

We have two cats. One is quite the lover existing to jump in your lap and spend quality time; the other bristles at the notion we are in charge and not him. He lets us live with him.

My seven-year-old daughter just can’t help herself. She is on a life-quest to make the disinterested cat her friend and playmate. Of course, he isn’t interested. In fact, when he hears her coming he panics and runs to his best hiding place possible.

Not too long ago while I was away on business, my daughter screamed out one of those earth-shattering screams. She came running to my wife, Faith, with her hand dripping in blood. As Faith cleaned the wound she noticed it was quite deep. When asked how the cut occured a brief explanation was given about how she had cut it on the corner of a piece of furniture. Hours later I returned home. She replayed the dramatic events of the day the way only a drama queen daughter can to her father. I was attentive and tried to console her that it would heal and leave no lasting scar.

Then I asked how the cut had become to be. Sheepishly she confessed the cat had bit her while she was trying to play with him. Realizing she had told me another story than her mother eight hours before…her conscience began to bother her. Time for damage control! She immediately confessed to the lie admitting she knew she wasn’t supposed to hold the cat hostage in her room.

The next morning after church Faith discovered the cut was looking very bad…Red, inflamed and quite painful. A very bad infection had set in. So off to the minor emergency “you’re really going to pay for this” center. A shot in the hip and an aggressive round of antibiotics was given. More pain, more drama, more tears. If she had only confessed the truth to her mother; Faith would have aggressively cleaned out the wound much more thoroughly. A little hydrogen peroxide would have probably made the difference. This was going to take much longer.

We do the same thing. I make mistakes all the time. We hide them from the Father thinking we can take care of it all ourselves. We don’t want to admit we knew we were doing wrong in the first place. Why? It’s not as if we’re getting away with it. That’s for sure. Pulling the wool over God’s eyes never works.

So what happens? We carry it around for days, weeks, months or years letting it fester into some sort of spiritual infection. The pain of carrying it around is harder and more painful than the wound itself. The fever has set in.

It’s so much easier to take it to the cross, admit we screwed up, and ask for forgiveness right away. Then the healing can begin. But not until we do so and let God’s healing salve remove all the infectious properties.

We were not concerned with our daughter making a mistake as much as not coming to us in truth so we could make sure her wound was properly cleansed. Forgiveness from the Father is always available and it’s not contingent on what we do. It just is.

By the way, my daughter survived but the cat is still nervous and very disinterested. Cat scratch fever has passed.