[Editor’s Note: This is a guest blog by Agnes Amos-Coleman. It’s an introduction to her book, The Provisions of God: Insights from a Cat Named Mascot. Sadly, Mascot passed away a few weeks ago, but now his memory will live on.]
A Book With a Mission – Inspired by a Cat Named Mascot
Let me introduce you to Mascot the cat.
It was nearly two years ago during a challenging season in my life that this stray black-and-white cat crossed the fence from our neighbor’s yard into our backyard, and never left.
It found a home with us. When my husband saw that it was old and hungry looking, he decided to have compassion on the cat and give it a home.
Before I knew what was going on the cat had a name—Mascot. I asked my husband why he named the cat Mascot, and he proceeded to share with me his reasoning: “We are a bi-racial couple (black and white), and the cat is black and white, so he is our Mascot.” You can imagine the laughter that ensued in our home that evening when I heard his reasoning.
Needless to say, Mascot’s feeding expenses became part of our grocery bills. It wasn’t too long before Mascot was getting fed better than I was—just kidding. Christians are allowed to have a sense of humor, right?
Over the past year and a half, I began to study closely the life of Mascot—his going out and coming in, and my husband’s interactions with him, and his with my husband. It has been during these times that the Holy Spirit ministered to me that the relationship between Mascot and my husband can be compared to our relationship with God. There are two very important similarities.
God’s Compassion on Us
Just as God had compassion on us and rescued us from the life of sin, which was Satan’s goal to destroy us, so too my husband rescued Mascot from hunger and death. Isaiah 53:4–6, reminds us how He bore our sins on the cross:
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
Our Dependence on God’s Provision
We are dependent on God for our daily provision—be it the provision of life, health, spiritual, emotional, physical, and material—just as Mascot is dependent on my husband to feed him daily. Job 38:41 reminds us:
Who provides food for the raven
when its young cry out to God
and wander about for lack of food?
And so I wrote a book about it: The Provisions of God: Insights from a Cat Named Mascot. In this book, you will discover faith-building principles for receiving supernatural provisions from God, and steps to sustaining your provisions.
This book is written to the glory of God and dedicated to Mission work. 90% of the royalties received from this book will be donated to help Missionaries struggling financially and those who want to go on mission trips and cannot afford it. To learn more, please visit www.agnesamos-coleman.com
Agnes is a leader with proven business acumen in a variety of industries. She holds an executive MBA from the University of Hull, United Kingdom, and is also a Certified Meeting Planner (CMP).She is also the author of The Provisions of God: Insights from a Cat Named Mascot, Weekly Insights for the Workplace: A Devotional for Christian Professionals