My backyard in Texas is a wonderland for two particularly playful squirrels that cause us to laugh hysterically from time to time. The male squirrel is all guy, and you can tell that spring is in full bloom where he is concerned as day after day he seeks to swoon his lady, putting on his best little Fred Astaire dance for Little Miss Lady, the Ginger Rodgers of the backyard ballroom. Forget Dancing WithThe Stars, we have Dancing With The Squirrels, only their’s is a three dimensional dance floor that extends into the trees and from roof top to roof top. Fred lays around all day on our oak tree as if depressed, his arms and legs dangle from the branches of his perch unless he gets hungry, at which point he gets off his wooden couch at goes foraging for something to eat (You ladies know what I’m talking about). Its funny, whenever his lady friend shows up its as if someone cued the lights and said “action!” Then, wow, what a performance: leaping and chirping loudly at our dog Daisy from his tree perch as if saying “beat it dog, my lady just arrived.” On one particular day he stood up on two legs and began to shake his booty from side to side, tail flickering in the wind and swaying from side to side. I could almost hear Luther Vandrose and Lou Rawls singing backup for the little guy. It didn’t take a squirrel expert to help me realize that romance was in the air. Our ill informed desert dog Daisy, who never saw a squirrel until our recent move, has no idea what to think, nor did she care, Fred and Ginger were about ready to start dancing…
I suppose I always thought squirrels were squirrels wherever you went, but not so. Their sizes and shaped differ wherever you live. And if my back yard Lothario is any indication, they have different dispositions. In Arizona they had “ground squirrels”, small and cheerful little guys who like their name implies, live in the ground. They lacked the size and bushy tails of their eastern cousins, and look more like Chip and Dale than any squirrel I’ve have ever laid eyes on.
In Iowa where I grew up, the squirrels look pretty standard, except for their beautiful black fur, unique to that area. Growing up I took it for granted that all, or most, squirrels were this color as it was all I knew. I still love watching those beautiful black squirrels in the evenings with my Mom from her courtyard whenever I am home visiting. We often will sit into the early evening until the sun sets and it is too dark to see them, but giggling at their cheerful play together as the baby squirrels leap from branch to branch until then. I find myself wondering if they’ll miss, but with skillful dexterity, they never do.
God has given us the ability to jump from unbelief to belief…we are called to faith and called to trust. Like the branches of a tree God’s hand is there when we take leaps of faith into His perfect will.
As I watch our dancing squirrels jump from my neighbor’s roof to a trellis, I am reminded of the woman warrior in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (if you have not seen the movie, envision the jumping off the dunes at Kitty Hawk aka Orville and Wilbur Wright’s first flight.), stealthily moving from limb to limb as if defying gravity, and I find myself wondering if perhaps Texas has flying squirrels… They are wonderful examples of God’s delicate, and intricate design, beautiful, sleek, agile, playful, yet taken for granted as the little scavengers of the back yard.
So here is my question for you today. On May 15th Oswald Chambers wrote:
“God is the Master Designer, and He allows adversities into your life to see if you can jump over them properly-” He then cites Psalm 18:29 “By my God I can leap over a wall”
Outrageous to think we metaphorically may look at challenges and literally jump off Jockey’s Ridge at Kitty Hawk with God offering Him praise and thanksgiving for the situation.
He asks that we believe. Believing Him for the outlandish desires of our hearts. Be the squirrel says HE. Be Orville or Wilbur. Jump
“The things that are impossible with men are possible with You.” Luke 18:27 NKJV
Hope in Him and take a giant leap of Faith, not tomorrow, do it now.
Jumping and Resting in Him, Trish
P.S. If you are squirrel # 1 …be married
Trish Southard 
We have Western red squirrels, like the ones that were run out of Iowa by the smaller black squirrels. One of the baby squirrels on our back deck crossed the line yesterday between the observed and the observer and walked into the dining room. I was sitting in the living room and watched as our cat walked up to the intruder almost nose to nose and simply welcomed him into our abode. He walked all around, including coming right up to where I was sitting and acting like he would jump in my lap. Then he spotted our blue fish, Betta Buddy, on the coffee table. Buddy had been watching him since he crossed the threshold, all around the dining room and then the squirrel’s movements around the coffee table. When the squirrel jumped up on the table Buddy ran a swift couple of laps around his bowl and when the squirrel looked into the bowl, he jumped out sending the intruder swiftly back out the door. Our constant protector can be revealed at any moment,even in the form of a blue fish.
Trish: Thank you for sharing this lovely account of the role of faith wrapped up neatly with a nutty love affair between two silly squirrels. A novel way of spreading the Good News…
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