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Everyone knows a squirrel buries nuts. In most fables this
is shown to be a sign of preparation. However, I recently observed a squirrel
burying and looking for nuts when I saw another side to this matter.
The squirrel was in my back yard. He was quite a bold fellow
coming within a foot or two of me. He took no notice of me because I wasn't
his concern for now. His concern was nuts, to be precise, finding them.
We have a woody area of shredded bark that's ideal for nut-deposits. Surely
this squirrel had made many. Now was the time to find them, to reap the
benefits of his forethoughtful behavior.
There was just one small problem: he couldn't find any. He
would look in this spot for awhile, digging earnestly. Then, drawn by a
signal I certainly couldn't hear, he'd go over to that spot where a nut
surely had to be. Dig, dig, dig...to no avail. I watched him for a half-hour,
futilely digging here and there.
Then he struck gold, or rather, nut. He found one, retrieved
it, and then nibbled on his find.
This set me to thinking: had he found his nut? Or had he
found one another squirrel had buried? This was a question I could never
answer and neither could the squirrel.
But it didn't matter: God hadn't put the hiding trait into
just this particular squirrel; He'd put it in all squirrels. And now, like
some great sharing community, they were all free to find and claim the
buried treasures of others.
In creating this little trait, God was drawing an object
lesson for us humans. In the Bible Jesus said that we can reap (that means
gather) where we did not sow (plant). This means that many times we'll
receive a benefit where it seems we did nothing to earn it. But actually,
we earned it by things we have done in the past, by burying nuts ourselves.
In America, we all dig up the nuts others have planted all
the time. Each time we drive on a newly-paved road or check books out of
the public library, we are gathering nuts we didn't necessarily bury. We
did our burying by paying taxes; we do our reaping by enjoying the services
the taxes provide for.
On a more personal level, each time we do someone a kindness
for which we get no immediate reward, we should chalk it up as another
nut buried. To let someone go in front of us in line, to share, to write
grandma and grandpa a letter...all these are nut-burying acts.
No doubt we've already received many nuts we didn't earn.
Let's do our part to hide more nuts in the field so that others may find
them.
Question: Can you think of something you did recently
that would be like burying a nut? What was it? Do you think anyone has
dug it up yet?
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