Vera has a new hiding place. The once trusted cat bed on the sill of the living room window has been vacant for several weeks. She has decided to lay on the seat cushion of a dining room chair. The one that she chose, of course, is what I would have considered mine. 

I’m not sure when, how, or why it happened. Perhaps next to my home office chair, I do spend the most time sitting eating my meals at the dining room table, along with the multiple nights  I have zoom meetings for Church. While her fascination may have started in protest to me of spending too much time in that seat, I noticed recently that she can look out the dining room windows as well as the living room windows with just a slight turn of her head before settling back down into a sleeping position. While I consider it a hiding place, since I don’t see her, she thinks of it as an advantageous perspective. No bird in flight around those windows will be missed (unless she’s sound asleep, which is usually the case). 

It’s amazing how much Vera reminds me of God. We can do the same things over and over again, yet we seem to miss a connection with Him. It’s almost as if He is hiding from us. We’re not alone in feeling that way. “Why do you stand afar off, O LORD? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” says the first two verses of Psalm 10. Psalm 13 begins “Will you forget me for ever? How long will you hide your face from me?” Psalm 30 begins praising God for His assistance, yet in verse 7 the psalmist reveals how quickly things can change: “By your favor, O LORD, you had established me as a strong mountain; you hid your face, I was dismayed.” God, however, is not hiding, He is right there with us as always. We are the ones who have stopped seeking God, comfortable in the routine ways of our lives. 

At first I would nudge Vera off the seat when I was ready to eat at the table. But when she’s snoring away, I don’t have the heart to make her move. Instead, I take a different seat at the table. It is only me and there are three other chairs and a bench that seats two. Perhaps God doesn’t always ask us to move out of our comfort zone by stepping out of the boat and walking on water like Peter did. Perhaps, He wants us to try out a different seat at the table. One where we can see when hummingbirds come and hover by the windows. Sometimes a different perspective is just what we need.