I've wanted to blog about the squirrel. But instead a couple of weeks back I wrote "Morning Minutes" about it. Before I begin to share the day-to-day "Minutes" here, I want to share the series that was all about the squirrel. Here they are:
Wednesday, October 1
Saturday night, I heard a loud squeaking sound outside our house. I had to go see what it was. When I stepped out, I spotted our cat on the driveway, hovering over a baby squirrel.
Of course I couldn’t leave the baby to this fate, so I removed the cat and took the tiny thing into my hands. I inspected him, and I held him. When I loosened my grip just a bit, he tried to scurry, so I thought he might be fine if I could get him back up in a tree. Maybe, I thought naively, he can run right back into his nest and be fine.
I put him on a branch, cuddled in some leaves, and went back inside. I also went to work on the computer, researching how to care for baby squirrels, and by the time my husband came home a few minutes later, I had a plan. We were going to take the squirrel in if it was still on the tree branch. Of course, it was, and when we brought it in, it hit me: what we had done for the baby squirrel is what God does for us in Jesus. God rescues us from the power of whatever would destroy us, and holds us close. We’ll talk more about that tomorrow.
Thursday, October 2
My husband and I took in a special animal on Saturday night: a baby squirrel about 5 weeks old that had been captured by our cat. Luckily, the cat had not done much damage, just a small cut on the baby’s side, which we cleaned and covered with antibiotic ointment as the squirrel rescue website directed. The site also told us how to tell if the baby was dehydrated, which it was. As the site prescribed, we made an electrolyte solution and began to feed the baby what it needed. We cared for it through the night.
As I said yesterday, what we were able to do for that baby squirrel is exactly what our Lord does for us. Evil, sin, and chaos are out to destroy us each day, to kill our souls, just as our cat was out to destroy the baby squirrel. And when those powers get a hold of us, what happened to the baby squirrel happens to us. We get frightened, and spiritually dehydrated, and injured.
But if we will not fight the divine hand, if we will let God hold us, our Lord will pick us up, hold us close, and nurse us back to health and wholeness in love, caring for us all through the night and every day. Won’t we let God rescue, hold, and heal us today?
Wednesday, October 8
Last week, I told you how my husband and I rescued a baby squirrel from our cat and took him in. Since then, some of you have asked me how he was. Here’s the answer. Last Saturday night we kept the baby squirrel, nursed him. But on Sunday afternoon, my husband and son took him to Columbia to a wildlife rescue center.
We had to do this because everything we read stated that, if a baby squirrel has been caught by a cat, it has to receive antibiotics, and that only people trained in wildlife rescue know best how to rehabilitate wild animals. So we had to take our baby to people who knew what they were doing. It was in his best interest.
This is, of course, how God designs things. There are reasons we need wildlife rescuers and veterinarians, doctors and lawyers, ministers and linesmen, secretaries and nurses, judges and government officials, custodians and teachers. None of us is called or equipped to do everything that needs to be done. We get in trouble when we try to do things God did not intend or gift us to do.
So today, as you go through the daily routine to which God has called you, as each of us seeks to do what we have been asked and gifted to do for the world’s good, let us know that we are valued, that we are gifted, and that the world needs what we have to give.
Thursday, October 9
One more story about the baby squirrel: when one woman heard the story of our rescue and the delivery of the baby to Columbia’s wildlife rescue center, she said: “well, I don’t think I’d have driven all the way to Columbia for a baby squirrel.” Now there’s some good wisdom in that statement. Was one sick rodent’s future really worth the gas money, the emissions into the environment, and the hours it took to drive to that center? I can’t answer those questions. But I can tell you what went through my head when my husband told me about the comment.
I thought about God. I thought about how God chose to come among us in Jesus to save us and provide an eternal future of glory and joy for us. I wonder if, when God’s plan of salvation was announced to the heavenly beings, some of the angels said: “God, do you really think you need to go to those lengths to save those broken sinful obstinate little creatures? Doesn’t that seem a little extreme? Will it really be worth it in the end?”
I don’t know about you, but I am so grateful that the Lord of all creation did not count the cost or consider the plan of salvation too extreme, too much of a sacrifice. Otherwise, who knows where we’d be? Let us give thanks to God today that the Lord chose to go to go to such lengths to save you and me.
Wednesday, October 1
Saturday night, I heard a loud squeaking sound outside our house. I had to go see what it was. When I stepped out, I spotted our cat on the driveway, hovering over a baby squirrel.
Of course I couldn’t leave the baby to this fate, so I removed the cat and took the tiny thing into my hands. I inspected him, and I held him. When I loosened my grip just a bit, he tried to scurry, so I thought he might be fine if I could get him back up in a tree. Maybe, I thought naively, he can run right back into his nest and be fine.
I put him on a branch, cuddled in some leaves, and went back inside. I also went to work on the computer, researching how to care for baby squirrels, and by the time my husband came home a few minutes later, I had a plan. We were going to take the squirrel in if it was still on the tree branch. Of course, it was, and when we brought it in, it hit me: what we had done for the baby squirrel is what God does for us in Jesus. God rescues us from the power of whatever would destroy us, and holds us close. We’ll talk more about that tomorrow.
Thursday, October 2
My husband and I took in a special animal on Saturday night: a baby squirrel about 5 weeks old that had been captured by our cat. Luckily, the cat had not done much damage, just a small cut on the baby’s side, which we cleaned and covered with antibiotic ointment as the squirrel rescue website directed. The site also told us how to tell if the baby was dehydrated, which it was. As the site prescribed, we made an electrolyte solution and began to feed the baby what it needed. We cared for it through the night.
As I said yesterday, what we were able to do for that baby squirrel is exactly what our Lord does for us. Evil, sin, and chaos are out to destroy us each day, to kill our souls, just as our cat was out to destroy the baby squirrel. And when those powers get a hold of us, what happened to the baby squirrel happens to us. We get frightened, and spiritually dehydrated, and injured.
But if we will not fight the divine hand, if we will let God hold us, our Lord will pick us up, hold us close, and nurse us back to health and wholeness in love, caring for us all through the night and every day. Won’t we let God rescue, hold, and heal us today?
Wednesday, October 8
Last week, I told you how my husband and I rescued a baby squirrel from our cat and took him in. Since then, some of you have asked me how he was. Here’s the answer. Last Saturday night we kept the baby squirrel, nursed him. But on Sunday afternoon, my husband and son took him to Columbia to a wildlife rescue center.
We had to do this because everything we read stated that, if a baby squirrel has been caught by a cat, it has to receive antibiotics, and that only people trained in wildlife rescue know best how to rehabilitate wild animals. So we had to take our baby to people who knew what they were doing. It was in his best interest.
This is, of course, how God designs things. There are reasons we need wildlife rescuers and veterinarians, doctors and lawyers, ministers and linesmen, secretaries and nurses, judges and government officials, custodians and teachers. None of us is called or equipped to do everything that needs to be done. We get in trouble when we try to do things God did not intend or gift us to do.
So today, as you go through the daily routine to which God has called you, as each of us seeks to do what we have been asked and gifted to do for the world’s good, let us know that we are valued, that we are gifted, and that the world needs what we have to give.
Thursday, October 9
One more story about the baby squirrel: when one woman heard the story of our rescue and the delivery of the baby to Columbia’s wildlife rescue center, she said: “well, I don’t think I’d have driven all the way to Columbia for a baby squirrel.” Now there’s some good wisdom in that statement. Was one sick rodent’s future really worth the gas money, the emissions into the environment, and the hours it took to drive to that center? I can’t answer those questions. But I can tell you what went through my head when my husband told me about the comment.
I thought about God. I thought about how God chose to come among us in Jesus to save us and provide an eternal future of glory and joy for us. I wonder if, when God’s plan of salvation was announced to the heavenly beings, some of the angels said: “God, do you really think you need to go to those lengths to save those broken sinful obstinate little creatures? Doesn’t that seem a little extreme? Will it really be worth it in the end?”
I don’t know about you, but I am so grateful that the Lord of all creation did not count the cost or consider the plan of salvation too extreme, too much of a sacrifice. Otherwise, who knows where we’d be? Let us give thanks to God today that the Lord chose to go to go to such lengths to save you and me.
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