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About twenty-five years ago Dr. Clyta Harris
and her husband separated. Clyta was left with three young children and a fourth
on the way. "I was devastated and so lonely I was physically ill," she
says. "I was in a graduate program, working full time, and trying to
provide a secure home for my little ones." Due to financial problems, Clyta
had sold their nice, large house and purchased a smaller, not-so-nice one that
she could afford on her salary.
As the weather got colder, she and the children
were plagued with a family of mice. Clyta was a brave woman most of the time,
but the sight of a mouse sprinting across her living room floor reduced her to a
bowl of mush. One evening she awakened her oldest son at 3am to help her find a
mouse---she could hear it scratching but could not locate it. Her son found it
in a small waste basket, anxiously trying to climb the slick sides and run for
safety. "Another night I awoke and in the light from a street lamp saw a
mouse sitting on my big toe on top of the covers," Clyta recalls. "I
kicked as hard as I could, and I never did know where that little critter
landed." After a couple of weeks, Clyta went into her living room just
after dark and surprised not one but five baby mice scurrying across the floor.
Clyta panicked. "I had known almost all my
life that God cared for me, but I had never thought to ask Him for help with
this problem," she says. Frustrated beyond imagination, she raised her
voice and her hands toward heaven and implored, "Oh, God, please help me
with this mouse problem!" She wasn't sure she really believed God would.
But He had other ideas.
Within minutes of that plea, the doorbell rang.
It was a student who had arranged to drop off a research paper Clyta was going
to type for him (one of her many part-time jobs). As she opened the door to let
him in, a large white and black cat moved stealthily around the door and into
her living room. The student seemed as surprised as Clyta was at the sight of
the animal. Had it been hanging around her door, waiting for it to open? How
odd, even amazing, that a cat had appeared almost immediately after she had
prayed.
"Kitty cat," Clyta spoke to her,
"Are you the answer to my prayer about the mouse problem?" She had
never allowed an animal to stay in her house, but it was a cold night, so she
let the cat stay in the garage. "The next morning I let her out and she
went on her way," Clyta recalls. "The following evening I heard her
meowing outside the front door. Once again she spent the night in my garage.
This happened daily for about two weeks."
The cat, Clyta noticed, was not especially
affectionate or playful, with her or with the children. It seemed, on the
contrary, to be on a mission and, although it would accept a saucer of warm milk
each evening, it was otherwise completely focused on the presumed task.
The furry visitor arrived each evening like
clockwork. And then, one night, the cat did not appear. Amazingly, neither did
the mice! "We never spotted another sign of a mouse in the two years we
lived in that house," Clyta says. "Nor did we ever see our angel cat
again."
Did God really send that cat? Was she an angel
in disguise, sent to answer Clyta's prayer? "Did God know that in my time
of weakness I needed Him to show me how much He cared for even my
"small" problems?" Clyta asks. " I believe the answer to all
of those questions is a resounding "Yes!" God knows and cares and
meets our needs, sometimes in most unexpected ways."
Dr. Harris offers a footnote to this story:
"After 18 months, my husband and I were reunited and next summer we will
celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. In many small ways, God strengthened my
faith as I believed for the return of my husband."
Copyrighted ©2004. Joan Anderson
Used with permission.
For more stories of God's love,
visit her website at:
www.joanwanderson.com
April Rain
Bruce
DeBoer
© 2003 Sweet One Productions |
