Righteousness Exalts A Nation
Normally, a cat is not an animal most Christians would want to associate themselves with, considering the negative reputation it has generally among Christians.
I myself am not endeared to cats, and barely had any interactions with them in my entire lifetime. However on this particular occasion, I had paid a visit to a family friend and stayed there for several days.
A cat happened in the house, so that was how me and this particular cat crossed paths.
It’s an interesting story as to how the cat got there in the first place, because this was also a christian family well known to hate the sight of cats not to talk of having them around, but that’s a long story which may distract from the topic, so let me not go there just yet.
Now during my stay there, I observed the cat was very selective when it comes to food.
It doesn’t eat rice, beans, yam, plantain, among others, so whenever any of the above is placed in its plate, it often end up in the refuse bin. If not there, it gets being devoured by cats of neighbors close by, to suggest that the cat is quite unique in the way it selects food, however as a result it’s often left hungry even when its plate is full of food.
It happens to often eat bread though and also appears to love licking soup especially draw. But of course, fish, meat are his favourite food as expected.
So whenever someone was about to eat swallow especially, somehow it is able to sense that what it craves was inside the plate of food the person is carrying, so it would follow the person hoping some of its favorite food could drop for it from the plate.
I usually share some of such with it while eating as a result, so it is usually hopeful of getting something whenever I was eating hence hardly misses such moments.
One day, it was already hanging around where I had put my food and was about to eat. However it appeared I forgot something so had to go downstairs to get it. Something appeared to delay me though so my food was left open for a while, but then when I remembered the cat was already there waiting, I shouted and rushed back to see what had become of my open food while I was gone. I sincerely thought it would have already pounced on the food and devoured especially the meat and fish inside.
But when I came back I just saw the cat still lying down close to the stool but the food was intact. I was shocked because the plate of food contained its favorite fish and meat and it was really close to it, yet it didn’t touch it.
Perhaps I didn’t need to be shocked if that’s the nature of cats but I didn’t know much about cats anyway. I don’t still know if this is the same with all cats but this particular one doesn’t touch any food that doesn’t belong to it.
Despite being hungry, it waited patiently for me to finish what I was doing to come and give it some meat and fish by myself before it would eat.
I was seriously impressed and it made me want to give it as much as possible. Funny thing is that when I give it, it could take it and run somewhere to secure while eating it, but it doesn’t touch someone else’s food.
It was a real eye-opener that a cat could have such discipline.
It made me begin to imagine what Nigeria would have become if we as Nigerians and our leaders had such discipline not to take what doesn’t belong to us.
The Bible says, “righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people.” Proverbs 14:34
That’s why a nation so richly endowed and blessed by God, is yet the poverty capital of the world.
It because of sin (mindless stealing and corruption) which would bring reproach to any nation.
At this time when Nigeria is suffering much poverty, hardship, and reproach due to lack of discipline on the part of her leaders and people, Nigeria could surely do well to learn something from the cat.
God bless.
