My cat had been crying a lot. I couldn’t tell if he wanted to go out or eat, so I started watching him. And when he meowed and walked straight to the kitty litter and urinated and then cleaned himself, I knew he could be in considerable pain from the crystals of his urinary tract infection problem. I scheduled a quick appointment with the first vet I could.
I don’t think the receptionist ever even looked at me when she asked, “Philip is here for his appointment?” Everyone prefers Philip over me, so I whined, “Philip is more popular than I am…” At least she laughed.
Inside, the vet’s assistant referred to the nervousness of my cat, and I joked that I was the nervous one, because of how much the bill might be. She told me she understood because things were so expensive, and she was living paycheck to paycheck. I told her that we are in a war but that I didn’t want to talk about it because I didn’t want to be negative. I liked her because she was similar to me. She told me the vet would be right in as she left.
After the doctor treated the cat, I had to wait in the lobby for food and medication. The vet’s assistant came in and I stopped her before she left. I told her it was nice to talk to her earlier. She was happy to hear that, and we spoke for a while. I told her I had stopped her before she left the lobby because I wanted to tell her that she provided good customer service, and she was so happy she opened wide her arms as if to say, “Get ready for a hug!” so I hugged her. It was a happy moment.
After I left, I thought a lot about it. She was happy although I did not provide any monetary assistance or physical help. I just gave her reassurance and recognition her boss probably didn’t provide for her because she seemed starved for it. But today, people hug often. In advertising and on TV they’re always touching.
Soon, my furry friend was doing better. He was resting. But as the cat was relaxing in the living room, outside, an octopus spread its tentacles, poised to grab us. The wicked system of the world is like an octopus spreading its tentacles. All of the institutions, such as the church, the family, the government, the schools, etc., are supposed to be separate and distinct from each other but they’re not. The church is supposed to be just the church, the family just the family, the government just the government, the schools the schools, no more, no less, and separate from each other. These once pure institutions have been politicized and they rival and fight other institutions over people and cannot function effectively.
We see the black ink released by the octopus to deceive its predators in the form of people in institutions deceiving individuals. Individuals sin as much as groups as machine-parts of a cold system run by people they know but don’t know, and don’t even care to know. But God is a smarter predator who can reach across time and space, from outside the universe. They both trouble us, but in the war, I’d referred to, the Believers win, and the Unbelievers lose. The Bible says, in Proverbs 16:5: “Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand in hand, he shall not be unpunished.” The vet’s assistant hugged me, and the wicked world has mugged me, but I don’t walk with them. God makes it rain on the righteous as well as the wicked but only temporarily. Jesus said to forgive others seven times seventy times, and God abides by his laws as we must, as a good example. This world will end soon because the Bible says that Jesus the destroyer will destroy it. The world doesn’t go on and on for billions and billions of years, as freewheeling scientists would lead us to believe.