His name was Oreo and he had lived in the neighborhood all his life. Everyone knew him and loved him. But then something tragic happened to Oreo: The people he lived with decided to get a divorce, the man going one way and the woman another, abandoning the home he had always known. Now moving just wasn’t Oreo’s thing, so he decided not to be “co-dependent” any longer and stayed behind, all by himself.

He changed over the weeks and months. No one could talk to him or even come close to him anymore. He isolated himself from everyone. The neighbors fixed food and put it out regularly and it disappeared–but if they ever happened out when he was there, he’d leave the much-needed food and head for safety and security–in dark places, smelly places, frightening places, places he would never have gone if “home” was still there.

Oreo was a cat–a little, scared, brown and white cat who just couldn’t handle divorce.

I wonder how many of us relate to Oreo? Maybe it wasn’t a divorce that fostered our decision to “never let anyone get behind my wall of protection! No one will ever hurt me like that again!” And a lot of us wind up isolating ourselves or going to scary places, places we would never have thought about going when our world was spinning the way we wanted it to spin.

What causes us to sometimes forget who we are and who lives in us to face this trauma for us? I can’t answer that question, but I can say I’ve “been there; done that!” And when I finally came to my senses I realized that I had cut myself off from the only Person who could bring peace back into my world, who would let me cry on His shoulder and would hold me just that much tighter, who loved me and had never stopped loving me–I was chagrinned, shaken, ashamed. I had abandoned Him! He hadn’t abandoned me! He will never, never, ever abandon me! But I had abandoned Him!

Yes, I relate to Oreo. I’ve hidden from folks who only wanted to help and
“divorced” myself from my Heavenly Father. Anabel! How foolish! How utterly foolish! Thank You, dear Papa, * for Your faithfulness to me.

Even when we are too weak to have any faith left,
He remains faithful to us and will help us,
for He cannot disown us who are part of Himself,
and He will always carry out His promises to us.
II Timothy 2:13 (TLB)