Eight years ago we adopted the cat, Clementine. At the time we had an ancient cat, who had retired some years before from the work of keeping rodents away from the house. As such we were starting to see a rodent problem and the old man cat napping in the sun was not helping. So I went to the shelter with the intention of finding a cat that would be a good hunter.

Clementine was immediately sweet, loving, talkative, and fascinated by Samson. Much to his chagrin she followed him everywhere, swatted at his tail, lovingly scampered about as he trundled through the room. She also loved the dog Apricot who was in her dotage and had spend most of her youth trying and failing to have Samson, and his late sister Delilah, love her. Clementine was happy. Samson taught her to be a good cat. We all adored her. And then Samson passed and the church office had a kitten that needed a home and we took him thinking it would make Clem happy. It did not.

To shorten the story: that kitten was tragically lost. Another kitten was brought home during Covid, both cats were brought in because of the problem of coyotes all around, and anyway Clem was not happy. There were the years of the pee wars, and there were the many years of a refusal to cuddle and a rejection of our bedroom where previously she had been very happy to snuggle up at night. Years. To the point that we would look back with sadness, with love of course for all the animals in our home, but sadness for the choices we made that seemed to hurt her and no good way to explain. And then a month ago in the middle of the night a big orange cat curled up on my chest while I was sleeping. I was aware of a contented purr and a reassuring mew. And she has stayed, almost expected now are the morning cuddles. There is some negotiating that seems to be happening with Pepper around who is going to be where and at what time, but nothing cats seem to be willing to share in a way they were not. But after six years, after we had given up belief in reconciliation, we have been forgiven.

Over and over and over in scripture, in the Old Testament and the New, we are told that the most important thing we can do in relationship with each other is to forgive. Love and forgive, forgive and love, this is the formula for being with each other, for understanding the movement of God, for allowing ourselves room to grow.

“If you, O Lord, should mark inequities, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered…For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with God is great power to redeem.”

-Psalm 130: 3-4, 7

We have all done things that we are sorry for, at least I have, and I hope that you are willing to do the self-reflection needed to see where you may have. We have all done things we regret, again, at least I have. I have to live with the consequences of those choices, but in divine forgiveness I am not defined by, limited by, or stuck in never being able to be more than the sum of that mistake. No matter how big the mistake.

I’m not saying forgiveness means that the mistake is erased. When we cause harm to ourselves, to another, that harm exists in the world and it may send us on a path we don’t like, didn’t expect, and can’t just pretend our way out of. But each day, wherever it is that we find ourselves, we should remember that in divine forgiveness we can return to love, that God wants us to return to love, and that in whatever place we are the invitation is to orient ourselves toward loving.

I have learned all this before, I have read books, and studied scripture, and had long conversations about forgiveness and forgetting and freedom and possibilities. I have felt the power of forgiveness before, when I let go of spinning on my anger toward what I did or I didn’t get and made room to be present to the love that was available where I found myself. But I learned something new when Clementine climbed back on to the bed and snuggled up at my feet. I learned that we all have our processes, we all have a journey we have to walk, and that it is never fixed as long as we keep showing up.

Please remember: the God of love and forgiveness wants nothing greater that you know you are not defined by the worst of what you have done, that your soul is a soul of love, and it is never to late to let that grow.

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