Lucky Cat

Bathing Lucky after she fell off Santa Teresa into the bay.
Bathing Lucky after she fell off Santa Teresa into the bay.

This week our little black cat (and shipmate) Lucky passed away. She died in our arms after a long illness. Jan had been feeding her with a syringe and we gave her water through an eyedropper, but it was her time and it broke our heart.

Lucky truly was lucky. We found her twelve years ago cowering under a black car on hot, black asphalt in Phoenix, Arizona. The thermometer read “117 degrees.” The little kitten fit in the palm of my hand and was nearly gone. Only Jan’s sharp ears heard her little cry for help. We raced to a drive-thru and got a cup of ice water. Jan piped water into Lucky through a straw while I drove home wondering where I was going to bury this kitten, but Lucky was always a scrapper and made it through the night and then lived with us on our sailboat, Santa Teresa for five years before moving with us into the parsonage.

During her life, Lucky fell into the ocean twice, accidentally hitched a ride out to sea on the San Diego Pilot boat, chased our other cat Phoebe from boom to boom and up the mast while we lived on board. Together they loved to watch the fireworks over the bay each night.

I don’t know that we will ever adopt another pet. It is just too painful to say good-bye. Even King David was enraged when the Prophet Nathan told him a story about a rich man abusing a poor man’s pet (1 Samuel 12). Lucky – like most pets – gave us so much more than she ever asked for.

“So do our pets go to heaven too?” I am asked. While the definitive answer to that question must remain in my famous notebook (where it awaits God’s answer after I die), I am strongly inclined to say, “Yes.” Even Solomon contemplated this question in Ecclesiastes 3:19-21. So when I think about Lucky, I take comfort in Paul’s observation:

Romans 8:19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Lucky and the rest of creation is waiting for that great day but there is a difference. Lucky might have been naughty (ask me about the mattress on my bunk), but she never sinned. Can we say the same thing?

Novus ordo seclorum

“Charles Thomson (November 29, 1729 – August 16, 1824) was a Patriot leader in Philadelphia during the American Revolution and the secretary of the Continental Congress (1774–1789) throughout its existence.” – Wikipedia

 ThomsonThomson had a tragic childhood. His mother died when he was just a boy and his father took the family, five boys and a girl, from Ireland to America to begin again. Within the sight of shore, Thomson’s father died and the sea captain embezzled all of their money. Thomson closed his father’s eyes after hearing his final prayer, “God take them up.” The children were left at the mercy of the New World. Charles rose above it all and became a true American patriot. He became the leader of the Philadelphia “Sons of Liberty” and a good friend of Benjamin Franklin.

When the Continental Congress was formed, Thomson became its secretary – a post most scholars equate with a Prime Minister. For fifteen years Thomson served until the congress was finally adjourned. At its conclusion in July, 1789, Thomson retired to work on a translation of the Bible and wrote a synopsis of the four gospels published in 1815. You see Thomson was a Greek and Latin tutor for the famous Philadelphia Academy and what he is best known for today is his work on the Great Seal of the United States.

It’s on the back of a one-dollar bill. Do you see the Latin motto “Novus ordo seclorum”? It comes from the fourth Eclogue of Virgil:

Now comes the final era of the Sibyl’s song;

The great order of the ages is born afresh.

And now justice returns, honored rules return;

Now a new lineage is sent down from high heaven.

“Novus ordo seclorum” means “New Order for the Ages.” Medieval Christians believed Virgil’s poem was a prophecy of the coming of Christ and Thomson, a Latin tutor well acquainted with Virgil, believed the founding of the United States was also part of God’s plan.

It is popular today to tout the separation of church and state, but for the founding fathers there could be no separation of God and state. Think about that the next time you spend a dollar bill.