Kelly was a stray cat who came to live with us after we found her in our backyard. At first she was skittish, but with time, she became a part of our home and our hearts. She would spend most nights inside with us, and then she would go out for the day, returning in the late afternoon or evening.

After Kelly had been with us for a couple of years, she came home one evening, and we noticed a distinctively bad smell. It turned out that she had been roughed up in some way and had some open wounds on her back end. My husband cleaned her up, but I was quite fearful about letting her outside again. For several days, I prayed about how to keep her safe. 

Petting her one evening, I noticed that the smell lingered, and I reached out to God again in prayer. What came to me was the sweetest feeling of the ever-presence and allness of God. It was an unquestionable understanding that Kelly could never be outside of the kingdom of heaven, whether she was confined in the house or allowed to roam freely outdoors. In the Bible, Jesus taught that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). How, then, could any of us, or any of God’s creatures, be separated from God’s kingdom?