Silly Squirrel

Beloved:

Yesterday I killed a squirrel on the way to an appointment.  Or maybe the squirrel killed herself.  How come no matter which side they are on squirrels insist on crossing the road?  The odds can't possibly be in their favor yet their enthusiasm seems uncurbed.  In the forest they run head first down a tree trunk without falling off.  I once saw a hawk pluck one off the ground to fly him high and away.  Maybe they'd rather take their chances with traffic than get picked off by a hawk.    Then again, maybe the squirrels I see are only a fraction of the squirrel population.  Maybe the forest is full of squirrels living quiet, productive, low risk lives.  Maybe most squirrels keep house, raise their young and stay out of hawks' sight.  

I got to thinking about sin. About how some people get caught their first time out while others can sin like crazy with nary a scratch of consequence.  The seeming unfairness of it.  And the simple fact that all the squirrels playing in traffic are not going to survive every time.  Who will and who won't isn't ours to know.  Only that some will not and we make our plans accordingly.  Demands for fairness hold no water when what's at stake is our right to sin without consequence.  The better plan is to access the risk.  The best plan is to stay off the road altogether and live where we have been placed.  To see this place, these people, this work as God's will for us here and now.  To take risks worth taking to help others, maybe to help ourselves.  But certainly for better reasons than curiosity, escape or cheap thrills.  

Silly squirrels.  They need my favorite bible verse.  Instead I'll offer it to you, "The boundary  lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage."  Psalm 16:6.

~ peace & prayers, pastor annette