Ebenezer wasn't just a CAT

I had a cat.  I got him in the early 80's from a neighbor who was going to put him in a gunny sack and throw him in the river.  I felt pity on the cat and traded a bushel of sweet corn (we raised vegetables at that time) for the cat.  He was a neutered male.  Sort of a tom wannabe.

 

Name, Ebenezer.  We called him Ebner for short.  Ebner is a German word too, a city, in English a last name, in medical terms a gland.

 

So, Ebner it was.

 

Good cat.  My last cat.  Every person in life comes to the place where they date the last woman they will ever date, have the last cat they will ever have and the last dog of their life.

 

I have done all those things. 

 

About Ebner.   I spoke in this blog about the capacity of cats to speak.  Ebner had words which meant, I want to go out, I'm in pain, I'm lonely, leave me alone, I'm hungry and come here.  Smart cat.

 

But, after 18+ years he died.  We have old plants and old pets at the Redlin household and we don't spend a lot of money on vets.  Just nurture and feed them and they will prosper. 

 

Ebner has another meaning for me now.  In the Bible there is a story about a defeat in battle of the Israelites at the hands of the Philistines.  TWICE.  Then they won on the field of battle.  Samuel the Prophet erected a stone memorial called an Ebenezer stone.  He then said, "Thus far the Lord has helped us".  The word Ebenezer literally means Stone of Help.

 

I have some Ebenezer stones in my life.  So do you.  Ebner the cat was no stone but when he passed on to cat heaven, wherever that is, I marked his place in the earth.  That was shortly before my business failed over 5 years ago.  Now I'm back.  In a way, I can look at that marker and say, "Thus far the Lord has helped me". 

 

That's why the second verse of "Come thou Fount of Every Blessing" means so much to me when it says:

 

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I'll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I've come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

We are all walking this out and I long for the day I can keep moving that Ebenezer stone closer and closer to the high calling of God.  Even the gates of Hell can't prevail against that.