Mermott on My Desk

Just in case you can't tell, the picture is actually of my black cat, Mermott, sleeping in my viola case. Mermott was the only kitten in her litter. Her fur is softer than you can imagine. I have never actually touched mink, but I expect that is what her fur feels like.

Mermott and I have a special relationship. Each cat is unique, of course; but Mermott is gentle and soft-spoken, and unobtrusive. She is an excellent mouser, but she is also an excellent napper. And being black, she is often hard to spot. In fact, our camera does not like to take pictures of her. She just absorbs the light and the camera doesn't know what it's taking a picture of. But often, when I pass by her sleeping in some shadow, she will chirp to me, and reach out and pat me as I pass, and I of course respond by petting her and speaking to her in a tone of voice and words that I save for her alone. (Please, don't call the men in white coats just yet...you have time!)

Almost every morning, at some point while I am working, Mermott will jump up on my desk, plop herself unashamedly down on the schedule in front of me and block my view of my computer screen. She sits there prim and proper, facing me, and chirps to me. So I, of course, pet her and bump my forehead against hers and talk to her in quiet low tones and scratch her cheeks. And she will often reach a paw to my cheek or lay her paw on my wrist. And we share a minute of enjoying each other's presence. Then she excuses herself and curls up on the printer, or finds the warm spot on the desk behind my monitor, and curls up for a morning nap.

But there is a calmness and an expectancy to our interludes. She doesn't pester me like her niece WrongWay, who jumps on my desk, walks all over my keyboard, insists on being petted and held and when I put her down, jumps right back up...over and over, until I put her outside! Mermott just comes, says hello, gives me a pat, gets a pet in return, and then goes on her way.

Probably one of the weakest areas in my relationship with God is worship. I have a lot to learn in this area. Feel free to make comments and help me out. And please be tolerant if what I say is way out in left field...or in the cornfield altogether. My problem is that there is no pretense in me. And worship at home, in private, is one thing. But it's hard for me to worship in church. It's too close, too raw, too exposed, too intimate. And I am not comfortable being like that in public. And I don't know how to worship in truth, and maintain my composure.

But as I thought about Mermott today, I realized, perhaps that was what public worship needs to be for me. Not the passionate, never-let-me-go kind of thing that WrongWay demands; but the quiet, forehead-to-forehead, paw-on-wrist, quiet conversation that Mermott and I share.