One wintry afternoon, when the wind was blowing and a light rain had been falling off and on, I drove my car to the edge of town and turned north onto the road that ran the length of the sand spit called Ediz Hook.
For centuries the Elwha river has been emptying into the sea and depositing sand. This sand has formed the spit called Ediz Hook. The spit is about 100 feet wide and three miles long. There is a Coast Guard station at its very tip, and the people of Port Angeles are very happy for it because it gives them a deep water port at the edge of the town.
To keep the spit from eroding away in storms, engineers have dumped tons and tons of large boulders on its northern shore. These boulders have piled up on one another, forming many hidden passageways and cavities beneath them.
Usually the only animals you might see on the spit are sea birds, eagles, seals and sea lions. As I drove, I caught flashes of bright colors such as oranges and white among the boulders. Slowing down, I was surprised to see that these splotches of color were cats.
The sun had come out in a break in the intermittent rain and these cats were sitting on the boulders getting a bit of sunshine. It was hard to guess how many of them there were. I drove to the end of the spit and parked my car. Strolling along the road, I saw many of them. They came in every sort of color and had thick winter coats. Whenever I approached a cat, it would twitch its tail, leap down into some crevice between the boulders and disappear out of sight.
After approaching a number of cats only to have them disappear, I quickly concluded that they wanted nothing to do with humans. I guessed I saw only a fraction of the total number of cats that were living among the rocks.
Later, I did a little research on the Internet and found out that people who no longer wanted their feline pets had abandoned them on the spit, and these numbers had grown until there were 40 or 50 of these cats living together in some sort of loose community. Abandoned cats sometimes band together in large numbers and form what are referred to as “cat colonies.”
They had gone completely wild. Animal experts cautioned against trying to trap any of the cats and bring them home for house pets because they probably wouldn’t be able to shake free from their wild ways.
I was surprised that a narrow beach jutting out into the sea, buffeted by storms, winds and wild waves, had become home to such a large number of cats. Unfortunately, due to the harsh environment and predators like eagles flying overhead, I don’t think many of those cats will enjoy a long life.
Another Hostile Environment
The cat colony on Ediz Hook was located in a very inhospitable, hostile environment. I wouldn’t want to wish such living conditions on anybody. Do you know that sinners live in a hostile environment too? The Bible says they are strangers to God’s grace. “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:22But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. (Isaiah 59:2)). Because they do things that displease Him, they are living at a distance from Him. Sinners are forever living in a hostile environment because they don’t know the love of God.
What’s more, they bristle and go into fight-or-flight mode when they are approached with the gospel. It is as if the hair goes up on the back of their necks. When someone tells them, “God loves you, and Christ died for you,” they try to get away as fast as possible. They turn away from hearing the message of God’s love and retreat into the hidden crevices of their sinful hearts.
Living in sin is like living in an inhospitable land. There is no future for those who remain apart from God. Whether they like it or not, those who reject God’s love and grace in this short life will spend eternity in the most inhospitable place ever, called hell. Sent out of God’s presence, they will never know anything good, wholesome or pleasant again. They wanted nothing to do with God on earth, and God will have nothing to do with them for the endless ages of eternity. Talk about a community of outcasts!
Suffering Isn’t Required
This fate of hell doesn’t have to happen to anybody. “The Lord is ... long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). It is God’s will that all come to repentance and faith in Christ.
Even if you have spent your life doing things God hates, He tells you to repent. Sometimes people sin so much that repenting from their sins feels like they have to tear their guts out. It might be painful at first, but it is the right thing to do. Repentance and faith are the only path to eternal life. Those sins may feel like they are part of us, but they are not. The blood of Christ can wash away the guilt of sin.
Animal experts cautioned against trying to tame one of the wild cats and make it into a house pet. Through bitter experience, they have found out that in most cases it just doesn’t work.
Wild cats may not be able to change their ways, but you are far more than a cat. You were created with a rational mind able to reason, judge and understand. Cats don’t have this ability. They act out of instinct. You don’t have to choose the easy, slippery path to hell. You don’t have to consign yourself to an eternity of distance from God.
We all need God’s grace. Not only when we first come to Christ, but every day for the rest of our lives we need His grace. Without it, we would surely fall back into our sinful ways.
We can live defiantly towards the God who made us, or we can confess we’ve sinned, turn to the Lord Jesus by faith, have our sins forgiven and start on the way home to heaven.
Which path do you want to take through life? What a horrible price sinners will pay for rejecting the Savior. The price they will pay is nothing less than an eternity in the outer darkness of hell.
Be wise and come to Jesus Christ who gave His life for you that you might live with Him forever.
Find more of God’s goodness to you in Kindness.