I have a cat....

Did you ever have one of those moments where something quite obvious hits you like it is brand new?  The other day I was sitting in the living room. Job came into the room, and I thought, "Holy crap!  I have a cat!"

For those of you who don't know me "real and in the flesh" let me just say, I am the LEAST likely person to have a cat. I mean besides a mouse there is NO OTHER creature on the face of this planet who is LESS likely to own a cat than Jami Lynn Kastner (okay maybe my dad too). In my pre-cat owning days, I had a saying that went something like this, "The only good cat is a dead cat."

However, we live in the country now. We are NEXT DOOR neighbors with cows. When it gets cold in the country, mice have a way of finding passage into a warm country house.  Hence the need for a cat.  See our cat isn't just a pet. This is a WORKING household, and every member of it has a job to do.  Job's job is catching mice.  Anywhoos... that is the reason why the other day I found myself faced with the stark realization that, "I have a cat!"

Life hits me that way sometimes too.

     "I have FOUR kids!"

     "I am 41!"

     "I canNOT do a toe touch anymore!

These things SHOULDN'T surprise me, yet time and time again they do.

Here's one that hits me like a ton of bricks over and OVER again:

     Christ died for my sins.

CHRIST the Son of God, the Lord of Lords, the Prince of Peace...

DIED a horrible, painful, disgusting, excruciating, inhumane death on a cross...

FOR MY... Jami Lynn Kastner, not some random, faceless, nameless person... ME...

SINS my ick, my ugly, the things I wish no one knew, the shameful, miserable, filthy, rotten stuff

Let it hit you like a sucker punch to the gonads!  The absolutely perfect, sinless God of this universe suffered and died for YOU! Not because you deserved it.  Not because you're a pretty good person.  While you were still a dirty rotten sinner... While I was still a dirty rotten sinner....  Christ died for us!  for no other reason than because He loved us SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much He couldn't stand the thought of living without us.

Let the beauty of that OBVIOUS truth hit you like it is BRAND NEW today.

Christ died for my sins.