On the way to Sunday school, I saw an interesting and unusual sight. I was driving down a street through a neighborhood of homes and trees, when I saw a squirrel family about two hundred feet in front of me. There were two adult squirrels and one baby squirrel starting to cross the street. I slowed down and then stopped about twenty-five feet away from them.
The first adult squirrel made it safely across the street, but the baby squirrel stopped about halfway and looked at my car. The other adult squirrel, who was following the baby, stopped as well and then ran back the way it had come.
The first adult squirrel began making chattering noises to the baby from one side of the street, and the second adult squirrel made chattering noises to the baby from the other side. It seemed that both parents were warning the little fellow. What was the baby squirrel going to do?
The little squirrel suddenly turned and went back to the side he had started from. And then the first squirrel quickly ran after him but only after it watched my car to see that I wasn’t moving. I did not move the car until the squirrel family was together again. If the baby squirrel had not listened to the chattered warnings of his parents, he could have been hit, for there was another car behind me.
The squirrel parents seemed to be giving the little squirrel a training session. Some animals and birds do that with their young. Perhaps you have read how an eagle stirs up the nest and then pushes the baby eaglet out of the nest and off the ledge of a high cliff. If the baby starts to fall, one of the parents will swoop down underneath the eaglet to catch the young bird on the parent’s back. Then the parent carries the eaglet back to the nest. The baby is not yet trained enough to fly and needs more lessons.
Boys and girls, if God cares that much for the squirrel and the eagle, don’t you think He cares even more for you? John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) begins with God’s love: “God so loved the world [you and me], that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” He has your safety and security in mind, but you have a responsibility too. The little squirrel listened to his parent and turned and ran back to safety. And your responsibility is to listen and do what God says.
God loves you and has given you His book, the Bible, to tell you about His Son Jesus. God’s love and concern for you is so great that He sent Jesus to die for you so that you can have your sins forgiven. Will you do as God says and believe and accept the Lord Jesus as your very own Saviour? “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son [cleanses] us from all sin” (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)).
I thought about how much those squirrels are like us. Perhaps in squirrel language one parent was telling the baby what to do and the other was saying, “You heard your father - now do it!”
In God’s plan, your parents will guide and direct you in what is right and wrong and how you should live to please the Lord Jesus. God wisely says, “Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord” (Colossians 3:2020Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. (Colossians 3:20)). He also says, “Hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother” (Proverbs 1:88My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: (Proverbs 1:8)).
Boys and girls, do you always obey your parents?
ML-10/23/2005