My family loves cats. We have adopted three cats over the past few years- Ida, Ichiro and Irma. My daughter Hope even draws her own comic strip called "Cat-toons." I think Meow Mix is planning their next commercial at our house ☺

Several years ago when we were living in the country, all of our cats were outdoor cats. We had one little black and white the kids named Johnny. He was always kind of standoffish, so it came as no surprise when Johnny figured the mice were greener (or plumper?) on the other side of the fence.

We were sad when Johnny ran away, but we soon found out he was staying right next door at the neighbors. They said he was hanging out over there, but he wouldn’t let them get too close. We decided to just keep an eye on Johnny and see what he would do. We knew we couldn’t make him stay home, so we began the wait.

It took quite a while, several months in fact, for Johnny to come home. He started taking a liking to another☺ little baby black and white we named Mini Oreos. Whenever he would come around we would pet him whenever he would let us. Slowly but surely, he warmed up to us.

Johnny got me thinking about our relationship with God. God must have thought it was pretty important to give us a free will, because He has paid dearly for it. God wants us to be with Him passionately, but He certainly doesn’t force us to. He waits patiently, watching for us to come walking up the road, ready to run and embrace us.