One of the most rewarding experiences of my life has been my most recent endeavor to foster two adorable kittens, Francis and Clare. I was able to see these two tiny creatures truly and completely surrender themselves to me. At one point I was giving them four medications a day just to keep them going. They truly couldn’t have survived without me.
 
Given how young the kittens were when I took them in, they really did treat me like their mother. They’d follow me around, test their boundaries tackling me, and keep me clean with their soft tongues. You could tell how their entire demeanor changed when I walked into the kitten room, and how they would try and follow me out blindly when I left.
 
While all of my own cats certainly love me, they do not see me as a mother in the way Francis and Clare did. We have a relationship, they trust me to feed and water them, and we enjoy each other’s company, but I didn’t realize there was something missing until I became a foster kitten mom. In our relationship with God it is so easy to live this way as well, as a follower, even a lover, but not as a child. We can be faithful Catholics, know that God provides for all our needs, and even spend time with Him in prayer without realizing that there is something more needed. We aren’t called ONLY to be His disciples, we are called to be His children too.
 
A child of God acts differently than a mere follower of God and you and I are called to be both. To be a child who trusts blindly and to be a disciple who has seen and believed the reason for his hope. To be a child who imitates their Father in everything and to be a disciple who continues this imitation out of logic and love. To be a child who never forgets time for play and to be a disciple who brings that same playfulness into service for God. To be a child is to love without limits, to be a disciple is to be faithful to this love when times are dark. We are called to be both.
 
As small as they were, these tiny kittens gave me a slight glimpse into what it truly means to be a child of God. I would watch them and see the ways I was lacking in this love in my own life. They taught me how to give without cost and how to not worry about my own life, especially when that life is wrapped so tightly into the hands of God. Every day I have the choice to live as a child or a mere follower. Every day I am called to be both. This is the beauty of tiny kittens on my foot. It is the smallest and weakest among us that remind us how to truly live. We are called to live as children of the light.