For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
~Galatians 5:14-15, 25-26
In the picture book Millions of Cats, an old man who is looking for a cat, finds a hill covered in cats, “hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats.” It’s too difficult to choose just one, so the old man chooses two, three, four, more—until he just chooses them all. But when he gets home with all of the cats, the little old woman says they can only afford to keep one. and so the cats begin to argue and fight about which of them is the prettiest, the best one to be kept and loved and petted by the very old man and the very old woman.
The cats “began to quarrel.” “They bit and scratched and clawed each other” until they have eaten each other all up. Isn’t this just the picture that Galatians 5:15 gives of Christians who are biting and devouring one another until we are all consumed by one another? And haven’t you seen this story played out in homes, in churches, in community groups, and on the internet? One person begins to become conceited, provoking others to retaliate, to try to build themselves up to look better than the first. We all begin envying one another, tearing one another down, admiring ourselves, biting and scratching, figuratively speaking, of course, until we eat each other up.
In Millions of Cats, there is one little humble cat who does not participate in the grand melee. He’s a “very homely little cat” who hides himself away during the battle and only comes out when it is all over. Of course, it is this homely little cat who becomes the much loved pet, “the most beautiful cat in the whole world.” (He’s the only one left!) The homely little cat gets to come home and be loved.
Let’s be like that cat, walk in the Spirit, in humility, and hide ourselves away from the backbiting and clawing and scratching that goes on in our world. Whether it’s in our workplaces or our churches or even our own homes, let’s stay away from the envy and conceit that pervade our world and instead look for every opportunity to love our neighbor as ourselves. Then, we will be in step with the Spirit, and we will be loved as we love one another.
In Kitten’s First Full Moon, an adventurous kitten, who thinks she sees a full bowl of milk in the sky, travels all over to find the milk, only to find that the only real bowl of milk is at home on her own porch. Kitten thinks she knows where she’s going, and she thinks she knows what she’s looking for. And she does keep on searching until she finds the real thing.