It is good to sit in my chair and just enjoy the lawn I have just spent half an hour cutting. I can even see faint stripes where the mower has been guided backwards and forwards.
The last time I posted a short couple of paragraphs on this site I mentioned the squirrels, quite a family of them seem to lodge in neighbouring trees and now that autumn has arrived that is where the problem has visited my beautiful lawn!
Next door there is a hazelnut tree. As the nuts have ripened they have been diligently harvested by boss squirrel, (he has to be boss because he has the most magnificent bushy tail),
As a resource, those nuts will probably see the squirrel family through the winter, but how to store them? All in one place and a robber will steal the lot, so with infinite cunning and no doubt a satellite tracking device, boss has been digging small holes… In my lawn!
Not content with that large space, he has even taken to digging in the flower pots that have decorated the patio. That tail could have easily cleared up the mess he has made but that has never occurred to him; earth and bits of grass are gaily scattered around. We have enjoyed watching the squirrel family during the year but digging holes to bury nuts that will probably just grow into trees is stretching their welcome.
An enchanting little story, but it has caused me to think about one of Jesus’ parables. It’s the one about the ten talents. In this parable Jesus tells of three men who were each given money by their Lord just before he set off on a very long journey. He expected them to put the money to good use and that is just what the first two men do. The third man, however, was so angry that he had just one piece of money, whereas the other two had more. The first man five times more! In his anger and disappointment he took the single shiny coin, wrapped it in some cloth and buried it.
Now that parable was a lesson to us to use the gifts God gives us in good ways, even if we don’t have much, we can still use what we have to help others in some way.
The nuts buried by boss squirrel will feed him and his family when there is no other food to be had, but, the money buried by the man will do nothing. Nothing at all!
Bob