Cats

I was able see a fellow bandie from high school dance in the national tour of Cats this past weekend in Morristown. Wow. Amazing. There is a sermon just waiting to be preached in there. Two ideas that really struck me were:

- Finding our True Identity

- And Re-creation in God

The back story to Cats is about the Jellicle Cats that come out once a year for the festival of the moon to see who amongst them will be chosen to be reborn. Only one cat is chosen each year by the oldest and wisest Jellicle Cat, Old Deuteronomy. Each of the cats take turns telling their stories (with each story composing the lyrics to a different song). Before getting into the stories, the cats explain that each of the felines have three names - the name their family gives them, their particular name, but above all there is a name that cannot be guessed. It is the name that only the cat his or herself knows deep inside. "His ineffable effable effanineffable

Deep and inscrutable singular name". (The Naming of Cats from Cats the Broadway Musical).

Don't we each have this type of name as well? The name not given to us by our parents at birth, but the name that speaks to our deepest characteristics, the name that God calls us by. I think most of our struggles in life come from not knowing our own deepest name, the name that is at our core. We've let the world define us for so long, that we don't have the time or capacity to ponder who we really are.

Possibly the most well known song from the musical is that of "Memory" as sung by Grizabella, a cat who used to be beautiful, but over time has lost her beauty throughout the trials of life. Her coat is now ripped and has sand deep embedded in it. The other Jellicile cats shun ad mock her. As a result the song "Memory" is about remembering what once was but never can be again - her old life of beauty and acceptance. At the end of the production Old Deuteronomy addresses the cats telling them that he has chosen Grizabella to be reborn, so she could live again as the beautiful cat of her memory. He also shames them saying that as a cat with three names should know that one cannot be judged by what is on the outside.

Oh how we are like the cats, shaming and mocking those who we don't deem to be worthy and beautiful, but God looks at this completley different level, where memories come alive again. If only we can learn to look with the eyes of God, what would we see?