LIFE TEST

     Tis four days before Christmas and all through the house the rescued twin kittens  are terrorizing Queen Smokey and playing with the dog's tail as he begs deliverance  from his harassers.  Armed with my trusty spray bottle...I am trying to guard the Christmas tree from the rampaging kittens. The margin of my hopes that my collection of ethnic ornaments would be hung on the tree is growing slimmer as the unbreakable ornaments fall to the floor ... victims of a small black paw swiping in delight  The twin's gift this holiday season was LIFE, Because they were nearly solid black..they had been sentenced to death... a sentence the old dog once shared. He and his siblings had been dumped in the woods high on a mountain before his rescue.  The queen mother cat had been dumped in a residential neighborhood and had survived by her wits for months before a family whose pets had died in a house fire snatched her off the street. Rescues...all...and all  have  a home this season.

     Pulled out of a fast food restaurant after picking up one of my sons from work and to my shocked surprise...saw two elderly (apparently homeless) people walk out of the park pushing a grocery basket each loaded down with all their salvageable possessions. Didn't have any room in the car and didn't have any cash on me so we drove home in the near freezing rain. Older son grabbed some plastic bags (to keep their possessions dry), checked his bank account (thinking he could at least feed them), left the house looking fruitlessly for the couple.  Never could find them.....and yes, we live in a small city at the end of the bus line...so the prayer is that someone (better able to help)  found them but I suppose I will never know the answer to that question.

     Son went to visit his sister in a not so far away city....spent one day helping out the Salvation Army's Angel Tree drive and that evening serving at a church  dinner  for homeless folk.  Cops in a town near us tried to chase homeless folk out of a park and threatened to arrest anyone caught feeding them. I remember a time when a homeless lady used to sit on a park bench not 40 feet from my classroom, Daily...the students would buy an extra school lunch and take  it to her. Some days that lunch was paid for by the New York born Italian principal  (who claimed not to know a thing about the lady even though he let the students out every day to feed her),  Then some nose in the air Board of Education member spotted the lady and her park bench...and demanded that the  bench be removed from the bus stop. The city complied...the bench was taken away and I do not know what happened to the lady.....another question with no answer.

     Then there was the Christmas we drove north to a major city....and found two men dumpster diving for food. Sons gathered up their take out food...put it in a bag..and demanded  that the two men cease diving and accept the still warm food. Told the men they had too much food and please help them before "Momma" got back to the car....all the while telling me to stay hidden until the men left.

     My point...with this rambling post?  Maybe, just maybe...each contact with a person or a  creature  in need is a test of who we are as human beings....a challenge issued by the Almighty?     Is it possible that people in need are angels administering the test not only of our humanity but also of the sincerity of  our religiosity?  Just saying...?