This is a story about the lessons taught to us by our own precious children. One day many summers ago, a gray-striped cat showed up at our back door. We refused to feed the cat, but she still came to visit us every day. This went on for a month, so we placed a classified ad in the lost and found section of our local newspaper and we posted signs throughout the neighborhood. When my husband took his evening walk with our children, the gray-striped cat would tag along. My husband asked everyone he encountered if they knew the cat.

The whole situation was becoming an annoyance. Our house cat, Katy, was not happy about the visitor at our door each day, so my husband decided that it was time to get rid of the gray-striped cat. He put her in the car late one evening, drove a couple of miles to a park, and left her. The next morning, when I rose from bed, I saw the gray-striped cat staring at me through my window. I knew then and there, that this cat had adopted us and there was nothing I could do about it.

The dictionary defines a squatter as "one who settles on land without rights or permission" so our new cat was properly named Squatter. We began to feed and care for Squatter. We took her to the vet for a check-up and shots. We wanted to have her spayed, but it was too late; she was pregnant. In due time she became the mother of six darling kittens. As the kittens grew, she taught them how to hunt, bringing home as many as six chipmunks in one day. When they were old enough she began to take them for walks around the neighborhood. Once she was gone on her walk-about for an entire day. It was then that we decided it was time to find homes for the fast growing kittens. I made free kitten signs to post in my husband's office, but the signs never left my computer's printer tray. Squatter left with her kittens the next morning for their regular walk and never returned. We searched the neighborhood to no avail. My husband and I were certain that Squatter and her kittens had been picked up by Animal Control and destroyed.

Every night for two years my children prayed for Squatter and her kittens. Every night they asked God to protect them and help them. I just didn't have the heart to tell my children that the cats were probably long gone. I would silently thank the Lord for being so patient with my little naive children.

Then one day, my neighbor who lives across the street, anxiously asked me if I had ever met another neighbor who lived just four doors down from me; I had not. She was so excited, she could hardly get the words out fast enough. It seems, this gentleman had a gray-striped cat and six kittens show up at his back door almost two years before. The cat came to visit everyday, until the man finally decided that the cat had adopted him. He gave the gray-striped cat to his sister, kept one of the kittens for himself, and found homes for the rest. As she told the story, I could almost hear Our Lord say to me, "Oh ye, of so little faith. Your children never gave up hope and I have answered their prayer."

I learned an important lesson that day about the power of prayer and it was taught to me by three little children. God sends His messengers in all shapes and sizes.

Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it. Then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them. (Mark 10:15 - 16)

The article was originally published in Hearts at Home in 1998.