Squirrels

I had a recent experience that caused me pain, sorrow, and anger.  Wanting to be careful with those feelings and really needing God, I walked outside and sat down on a bench to get away from people and to pray.  I read a few verses about how God reveals hidden things…… which helped some. 

Then I heard a commotion up in the pine trees in front of me.  (Southerners hear commotions, I don’t know about the rest of y’all.)  I looked up and there were 3 or 4 squirrels chasing each other, leaping from limb to limb, apparently having a wonderful time 30, 40, 50 feet up in the very tops of the trees.  And this verse came to my mind:

He maketh my feet like hinds’ feet: and setteth me upon my high places.  2 Samuel 22:34 (KJV)

To come clean, the only reason you get KJV is because of a book I read once called HINDS FEET ON HIGH PLACES.  It was about a character named “Much-Afraid” slowly learning to trust God (if I recall correctly).

At one point in the squirrel tumbling routine, a pine cone fell, and it took a long, long time to hit the ground.  I am afraid of heights, just so you know,  and I was reminded of this verse:

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny ? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.   Matthew 10:29 (NIV)

Anyway, these squirrels  way up in the top of some tall southern pines functioned as a picture for me like the hind (a kind of deer) surefootedly living and thriving in the high rocky mountains of the Middle East.  The squirrels (and the hind) were made by God to live up there, and not a one of them needed to worry about falling unless and until it was God’s time for them to exit his creation.  It was just a reminder, a badly needed one at the time, that God is in control.  Whatever happens, He’s got it.  I can trust him.

Thanks for the squirrels, Lord.