The temperature hovers at thirty degrees this morning but the snow that was forecast hasn’t arrived. Maybe later today? At least, the streets are safer with no snow on them.
Has anybody seen any wooly worms lately? If the winter is to be extra wintry, isn’t the band around a wooly worm’s middle broader? My brother Richard has persimmon trees on his land. I’ll have to ask him to crack open a few seeds and see if a knife, fork, or spoon is inside. One thing for sure, that squirrel I saw in the fall had the longest tail I’ve ever seen on a squirrel and I have the picture to prove it! I’m assuming squirrels wrap up in their furry tails to keep warm and if long tails are a sign of cold weather, this winter will be a doozy.
My niece Missy sent around a video about a a fox hunting for mice in deep snow. The amazing thing was that when the fox faced north, his success rate in diving into the snow headfirst to latch onto a mouse was seventy-five per cent! Evidently, foxes have little honing devices the Lord built into their brains that connects with the magnetic field of the North Pole. That and his sensitive hearing allow him an edge in finding food. The One who created foxes gave him this ability and to me it is awe-inspiring.
The older I get, the more I realize that animals have many qualities that help them stay alive or safe. We who live or were brought up on a farm know that horses and cows, even dogs and cats become nervous before a storm. And, when the hogs in the pigpen try to bring sticks to supplement their beds, it’s a sign of coming bad weather. I wonder if we humans too once had keener senses before civilization and technology dulled those senses? However, the Lord gave us the quality of curiosity. Armed with a burning desire to know, we forge ahead to new technological discoveries making life more comfortable. This is, in itself, is wonderful, but in doing so, do we leave behind our connection with the natural world?
The story of the fox reminded me of the Book of Psalms. This morning I read Psalm 86:10, “For thou art great, and doest wondrous things; thou art God alone.”
I believe that the world as God made it is teeming with amazing, miraculous things. Maybe we are so busy we don’t always see or hear or feel them but they are here. We people are pretty amazing too because, even with all the beauty and wisdom that God gave animals, people are the only creatures made in His image. The innocent wonder in the eyes of a child, a smile from a stranger, an act of kindness out of the blue, putting the safety and well-being of others ahead of our own, these are all reflections of the great God who made us.
I am reminded of a quote from Walt Whitman in Song of Myself: “I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained…They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins.”
And then, a comment from a writer I’ve admired for many years, Charles Livingstone Allen. His answer was that although animals don’t weep for their sins, neither do they write poetry.
The Lord gave us eyes to see, ears to hear, and a mind with which to think. I am grateful and I am thankful that I live in a world that didn’t happen by accident but was planned and created by One who watches over us all.
Speak Your Mind