not understand what we
tried to explain about
the dangers of the street.
The life and death of Ash
impacted me greatly.
their cat. I was terrified of the same thing happening
to Ash and did not tell my daughter or wife what our
neighbours had told me.
Not to worry though, because Ash was a very smart cat
and we trained him well. Each time he came onto the
driveway heading towards the streets we would warn
him sternly not to ever attempt to cross that road. We
told him off and warned him time and time again. One
morning as my daughter was preparing for college and
I was just about getting out of bed she came into my
room screaming and crying in total shock and confusion.
Her mirror was by her bedroom window that opens
up towards the road and as she was fixing her hair she
glanced across and saw Ash walk out our front gate
onto the pathway and then proceed to cross the busy
rush hour traffic. She stood and watched as one car
hit him, throwing him into the air and into the path of
another. My wife and my daughter ran out as fast as
they could fixing their robes as they went. I was delayed
in going out so when I got there they were already in
a passerby’s car and rushing off to the nearest vet. I
quickly told them I would get coats etc. for them and
meet them there shortly. When I got there my daughter
met me in the parking lot and gave me the bad news.
Ash was dead and nothing could be done to save him
He really got knocked about and had been badly hurt.
My daughter wept bitterly for days. We all cried because
losing Ash was like losing a family member. How could
this be? Why would Ash do the exact thing we warned
him over and over not to do? Ash did seem to be able
to understand some instructions but obviously he did
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As I wept over Ash
I remember Jesus
weeping over Jerusalem.
“When Jesus came closer
and could see Jerusalem,
he cried and said: ‘It is
too bad that today your
people don’t know what
will bring them peace!
Now it is hidden from
them. Jerusalem, the
time will come when your
enemies will build walls
around you to attack you.
Armies will surround you
and close in on you from
every side. They will level
you to the ground and
kill your people. Not one stone in your buildings will be
left on top of another. This will happen because you did
not see that God had come to save you.’” [1]
Something very terrible was going to happen to
Jerusalem because its people could not understand
that their Saviour had come. Remember Adam and Eve
the first two created human beings, how God told them
not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and
evil. If they did, He told them they would die within the
day? It happened that the very thing God warned them
not to do was the very thing they did. Natural people
relating to God is so similar to how cats relate to human
beings. Just as we loved Ash, God loves us and wants
to have a long loving relationship with us. He therefore
warns us of the dangers and things that could kill us. But
do we understand the truth and seriousness of God’s
warnings?
Jesus said when He quoted Isaiah, “These people will
listen and listen, but never understand. They will look
and look, but never see. All of them have stubborn
minds! Their ears are stopped up, and their eyes are
covered. They cannot see or hear or understand. If they
could, they would turn to me, and I would heal them.” [2]
God pleaded with Isra