Eek the Cat

May 22, 2025

Many decades ago my children and I loved a weird cartoon called “Eek the Cat”. In one episode, Eek, a cute purple kitty, is looking for a job and asked what his skills are. He says, “I can cough up hairballs and mold them into fuzzy replicas of famous talk show hosts.” Often, the episodes show Eek with a chance to assist someone and declare “It never hurts to help,” and then he gets creamed. It makes for great slapstick humor, but is that really the way the world is?

Sometimes, it may seem that way. How many times have you done something nice for someone, made a sacrifice, or organized an event and never got thanked, or were even noticed? Have you ever been chastised or ridiculed for trying to help? This is when the theology of Eek the Cat really gets important. Eek is never deflated, never deterred, and never gives up helping others. In everything, he believes that some good will come of it, even if he gets creamed along the way.

I think Eek was a fan of Paul, who also said, “It never hurts to help.” Consider Galatians 6:9 we read, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Also, in II Thessalonians 3:13, “And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good.” Jesus’ brother James writes in James 2:17, “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

Eek never gave up trying to help because it was a part of his cartoon nature. The traits of positive attitude, willingness to make a sacrifice for others, and doing good works because that is what our faith teaches us to do. It is not easy, we get tired of being taken for granted or being treated badly when we are trying to help, but our faith teaches us that we don’t help others for the “Applause of Man.” As James says, we do the works we do to help others as an expression of our faith.

Jesus told the Parable of the Good Samaritan to teach this lesson as well. In this parable an “evil” Samaritan helps a wounded Jewish man, takes him to a Jewish community that hates Samaritans and looks after the Jewish man’s needs. In Jesus’ mind, the willingness to help someone else, no matter the cost, is a great and noble act. It is also a parable of the kind of sacrifice Jesus was willing to make for you and me, by allowing his enemies to hang him on the cross. This is the greatest example of all of the willingness to make a sacrifice for someone else.

God also tells us that the good things we do have eternal rewards. God reveals in Revelation 14:13, “Then I heard a voice from heaven say, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Yes," says the Spirit, ‘they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.’” Whenever you are getting tired of doing good works, remember that God has prepared eternal rewards for you when you glorify His name through the good works that you do.

There is a song that I think Eek would have liked called “The Lumber Song” sung by Eli and written by Linda Halligan, Bob Halligan Jr. & Rick Cua. In the song, St. Peter is leading a man past many great heavenly homes until he arrives at a two-room shack. The man is confused as to why he gets such a humble dwelling, and Peter responds, “That’s all the lumber you sent,” indicating that for every good deed, a piece of lumber is sent to heaven to build your eternal dwelling. In the second verse, the man asks for a second chance so that he gets to live in a mansion for eternity. Eternity is a long time.

Perhaps at this moment you are wondering what kind of mansion or shack your good deeds might build in heaven? The always positive Eek, would look at you and say, “Don’t frown, a shack in heaven is a million times better than any mansion in hell.” Then, with a big smile, Eek would say, “Come on, join me in this worthy project. It never hurts to help.”

Would you go with the cute purple kitty? Do you have a regular deed you do to help others? Is doing good deeds something that is important to you? What is the favorite good thing you have ever done? God is quite the builder, and is looking for the lumber that is your life! (To learn more about Al Earley or read previous articles, see www.lagrangepres.org. You can purchase my book, My Faith Journal, at Amazon.com, a compilation of 366 articles as a daily devotional).