December 20, 2013
The Third Week in Advent

 My wife Phyllis is a licensed rehabilitator of small mammals.  She has specialized almost exclusively in Eastern gray squirrels, of which there are a multitude around our house.   When she takes in small pink baby squirrels and tenderly nurses them to adulthood, they are released in the woods behind our house.   It is a joy to watch the excitement of these little creatures as they exit their cage door and begin to explore treetop playgrounds and a world of freedom.    For a while they come around, and while we are outdoors they may even jump on a lap or climb onto a shoulder.    Eventually they learn a healthier caution around humans.    But we still put out for them morning peanuts and corn, and we find joy in watching "our" squirrels throughout the year.

 It is said that the Eastern forest in the United States, from Maine to Georgia, was planted by squirrels.   I believe that could be true.  I am constantly finding peanuts growing in my garden--and walnut and hickory trees sprouting where I did not plant them.   It is the squirrels nature to spend much of its waking hours burying seeds that they can find in leaner times.   Squirrels can locate some of their buried treasures even under a foot of snow.   Others become trees.

 Faith is like that, too, I suspect.   Much of what we do is just planting seeds.   Raising our children, nurturing friendships, offering compassion to strangers, doing our little things to make a more just and peaceful world--all seeds.    Some of them actually grow.

A Squirrel’s Faith

You love small things, Lord.
We are coming close again
to that little stable,
where there must have been
a mouse in the straw,
a sparrow in the rafters,
a wee child helpless
in a young mother's arms.
It is an unfinished tale,
the germ of a truth
that would grow
and fill the universe.
So we take that kernel
and plant it, bury it somewhere,
in the ones we love,
or in a stranger, even,
anywhere there is fallow ground.
We tuck it deep inside
the folds of our own hungry hearts,
and wait
for the tree to grow.
Give us a squirrels' faith,
Lord.
Let the tiny thing we plant
be a seed
of your love.

--Timothy Haut, December 20, 2013