Friday, August 21, 2020

This is Life




















One of our squirrels lays across his once domain. 

I have anthropomorphized him by saying he is lamenting his feeding station being moved to the "Back Forty". We can no longer watch our myriad of birds ten feet from our window, and it is all because of this squirrel and his ravenous family. 

Lament away! and I will only feel a bit guilty!

This all came about as they became more bodacious reminding me of the terrible story by H.G. Wells, Dr. Moreau, UGH, ICK!  

So far we have 2 squirrel size holes in our screen porch as they made themselves at home one weekend. That was the day the feeders came down.

Yes, this is life. We love wild life, but in its rightful place! 

It all reminds me of our fallen world.  What joy it will be when all is set right. It will be better than Eden! The squirrels etc will be doing their thing along with everything else including the Saints.

Until then our lives are in the NOW. This is our life NOW. We need to live it rightly before the LORD.

I remind you all to Get Into the WORD to be Competent for the LORD's work. We need to do it now.

Oh, my, goodness, do I completely understand about being busy, overwhelmed, distracted....

But we still have an important job to do for our great God!

Here is a short list to help us begin whetting our appetites remembering who we are in Him, (although spend time soon reading the whole book to get it all in conext):

2 Corinthians 1:3-5

3:1-6

4:16-18

5:1-10

5:17-21

6:1-10

Behold! Now is the Acceptable Time!
*
I write this in the aftermath of a great storm of Straight Line Winds which ravaged a huge part of our beautiful midwest state almost 2 weeks ago.  The damages are heartbreaking to see. A few people have died, many injured in the clean up, buildings broken or destroyed, and a lifetime of trees gone.

Why do the fallen trees affect me so? 

It all looks so desolate and empty.

The Trees: They seem to be a symbol of our lives. 

So many of these trees are older than anyone alive.  When the clean up is finished small trees will be planted, but we all will not be here when they are full and lusciously grown. It takes more than a lifetime for trees to be so maturely grown.

These trees all point to our very own lives in the here and now.  We only have whatever time we have left on this earth. We must decide to get into the LORD's Word to be ready for whatever He has for us in the times we have left.  

We can not wait to the future, we must be mature now.

2 Corinthians 6:1-10
"And working together with Him, we also urge you 
not to receive the grace of God in vain— for He says,

“At the acceptable time I listened to you,

And on the day of salvation I helped you.”

Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” 
behold, now is “the day of salvation”—
giving no cause for offense in anything, 
so that the ministry will not be discredited,
but in everything commending ourselves as 
servants of God, in much endurance, 
in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses,
in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, 
in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, 
in purity, in knowledge, in patience, 
in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love,
in the word of truth, in the power of God; 
by the weapons of righteousness for the 
right hand and the left, by glory and dishonor, 
by evil report and good report; regarded as 
deceivers and yet true; as unknown yet 
well-known, as dying yet behold, we live; 
as punished yet not put to death, as sorrowful 
yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, 
as having nothing yet possessing all things."
*
We do not know what will happen tomorrow. 
We need to be ready by having His Word in our hearts!
*
H/T:Ed, a precious man of God who always encourages in the LORD. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Precious Jill!

I love the picture of your "forlorn" squirrel. You have taken all his goodies away from him!

I am sorry, however, that by doing so, you also lost your precious bird watching.

Maybe there's a solution: www.wbu.com

That is the link for Wild Birds Unlimited, which has stores in Iowa (I see stores in Davenport and Des Moines). They have the most amazing squirrel proof bird feeder contraption: it's called their "Squirrel Baffle". They make a pole system on which you can mount bird feeders, and then place this baffle on the pole. Squirrels cannot get around it, at all. We have been avid bird bird watchers for years, and purchased this system to keep the squirrels at bay. It truly works. The confused little rodents try to climb the pole, only to get stuck in the interior of the baffle, with their little fluffy tails hanging out from the bottom like the clapper of a bell. As long as you place your feeder far enough from any object (fence, railing, tree, etc) from which the squirrel could jump onto the feeder, the baffle will keep them from climbing onto the feeder from the ground. No matter how hard they try, they cannot make their way to the birdseed! Ah-ha! Foiled!

Maybe this will help you regain the joy of your backyard birds!

Anyhow, you are so right - one day this fallen world will be set straight, all gloriously in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ! Until then, as you encouraged, we can press on in faith, serving Him in the here and now. Your analogy about the trees - so appropriate.

:)

-Carolyn

The Piper's Wife said...

Thank you, Carolyn! I had forgotten about feeders like that! Back in another lifetime we had a feeder like that, but never had squirrels where we live now until about 4 years ago to even consider troubles! Ah, what bliss it was when they were just fleeting frightened guests at our feeder!

Yes, we must press on for the LORD! :o)