The Cat Problem
"Judge not ..." - Matthew 7:1
A traveling chicken farmer as tall as his Oklahoma plains, Gene always told ranch yarns and poultry raising tips as I served home Communion in my last church. Confined then most of his days to a recliner and cable TV, his mind rambled freely the cattle and chicken ranches under the endless skies of Oklahoma and Texas. Gene held my ear as I planned our first chicken coop on our 7.5 acre ranch in Rimrock, Arizona. Gene gave me tips on how to bulletproof our henhouse from coyotes which hunt in packs.
“One day I visited an old farmer,” drawled Gene, ” He pulled back the door, and we walked into his wood chicken barn. To my surprise the old farmer kept all his chickens in cages chained a few feet off the ground. And below the cages wandered a bunch of cats.”
Observant, “I see you’ve got your chickens all up in cages? Is that to protect them from the cats?”
“Oh no,” said the farmer matter of fact, “The cages protect the chickens from the rattlesnakes.”
“What are the cats for?”
“Oh, the cats keep the rattlesnakes down.”
Our solution to fix a problem … may create a problem that doesn’t exist.
What we considered a problem today offered us the solution disguised.
Pastor Jim
