FREEING
THE SQUIRREL

Topics: Advent; Christmas; Freedom; Incarnation; Patience; Redemption; Salvation; Waiting on God

References: Psalm 27:14; Acts 9:1–19

One Christmas we had an unexpected houseguest. A squirrel had fallen down the chimney into the wood burner stove in the basement of our home in Michigan.

I thought if it knew we were there to help, I could just reach in and gently lift it out. Nothing doing. As I reached in, it began scratching like it had overdosed on espresso.

We finally managed to construct a cardboard box “cage” complete with a large hole in one side, into which the squirrel waltzed when we placed the box against the wood burner’s door. We let it out into the safety of our backyard.

Later, I thought, Isn’t it funny how, before its redemption, our little visitor had frantically tried to bash its way out of its dark prison? It seemed that the harder it struggled to get free, the more pain it caused itself. In the end, it had to wait until one who was much bigger—one who could peer into its world—could carry it to that larger world where it really belonged.

That is what the Lord will do for us.

—Clark Cothern, Detours (Multnomah, 1999)