An Earth Quake in Texas

    At the first sign of light this morning I walked out in the woods behind our house, and quietly climbed up in the old tree house. Our tree house is high up in an Oak tree that is leaning over a small creek. It was a beautiful morning. The wind was absolutely calm and everything was quite. I was straining my ears and eyes listening and looking for any wildlife moving in the woods. All of a sudden I felt a slight tremor in the tree. I figured that it was the wind starting to blow. Then I felt a much strong shaking of the tree. I knew someone must be climbing up the tree to join me, but looked over the edge and saw no one. I had never experienced an earth quake in Central Texas, but figured that this must be the first one. Then I felt the shaking again, and saw the source of the shaking. The tree I was in had a very long limb stretching over the creek. The squirrels used the limb as a freeway for crossing over the creek without having to swim. A small squirrel had jumped on the very end of the limb, causing the whole tree to shake! Each step he took caused the entire tree to shake again. I was awed that such a small lightweight creature could shake a huge tree! The squirrel continued his travel passing within inches of my feet with only a passing glance at me.

    Sitting in the tree, while trying to recover from the “earth quake”, I started thinking about how such a very small squirrel could cause the huge Oak tree to shake. This reminded me of what a tremendous impact we as Christians can make in our world, when we have God on our side! Paul and Silas actually prayed down an earth quake” after being put in jail! In Luke 1:37 we read: “with God nothing shall be impossible”. James 5:17 tells us that “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months”! Dream big and pray and you may be surprised to see what happens!

Watch Where You Make Your Trails

Some of the Texas countryside can be very dense and difficult to navigate. Tall grass and underbrush can also hide the numerous poisonous snakes that inhabit Texas. Thankfully most of the countryside is crisscrossed with many trails. These trails are typically made by herds of cows, or other types of livestock, as they move through the woods traveling from grazing areas to watering places and to sleeping areas. The cows typically follow the same trails, day after day, and spend a lot of time walking single file, leaving well-worn and deep-rutted trails. The cow’s large bodies trample down the under brush and shrubs, leaving a nice wide trail. Wildlife of all types follow these trails to get through the thick woods. Hunters, bikers, and hikers also use these trails. All the animals have the same excuse for using the existing trails; they all prefer to take the easy route that has already been cleared by others!

In the city parks and greenbelts, there are no cows to make the trails. The deer make small trails but quite often these trails are very narrow and are sometime blocked by low hanging limbs that only a deer could crawl under. I have noticed that the deer and other wildlife quickly start using the trails that I clear in the woods behind my house. It is rewarding to see one of my newly cleared trails full of animal tracks, only a day or two after I cleared the trail!

Just as the animals do, we humans tend to take the well worn paths. We are also creatures of habit. We tend to follow the “habits” or easy paths that others have cleared. When my son started his student driving I was shocked to hear the comments coming out of his mouth when someone rudely pulled out in front of him. I quickly recognized his “look at that crazy nut!” phrase as one that I had used! Hearing my son pick up my angry phrases caused me to rethink what I was saying. Realizing that our children and other Christians pickup our habits and follow our paths should make us more careful to insure that we follow good paths and be a good example for our fellow Christians. Romans 14:21 admonishes us not to do things that could cause our brothers to stumble. Live your life as best as you can, because you never know who is watching you and following in your footsteps

Small Things

Another unique and magical phenomenon is taking place in nature. One of earth’s smallest creatures is on the move again. The Monarch butterflies are nearing the end of their fall migration. For the past few weeks they have been traveling through the central Texas area, on their way to Mexico. Just a couple of days ago I watched a monarch feeding on the flowers in my back yard. After a couple of minutes it started spiraling upwards, above my house and then above the trees, catching the north wind and headed south again toward its winter feeding grounds.

The Monarch is a really amazing creature! They appear small and fragile but are really tough little creatures! Their migration started in the northern United States and Canada during August. They will travel over 2000 miles, to their destination in central Mexico, arriving in October. These small creatures fly between 50 and a 100 miles a day in their migration to Mexico. How do they know when to start their migration; how do they know where to go, and how do they know when they have reached their destination? These are questions that only God knows and scientists are still trying to figure out!

Sometimes we Christians think that we are so small and insignificant that we will never accomplish anything big, for the Kingdom of God. Being small does not relegate us to a life of mediocrity! The Bible is full of examples of “small” things accomplishing big tasks. James 3:4 tells us about the small rudder that turns the large ships! The Israelites were a small people compared to the giants in the promise land; but with Gods help they are able to conquer all the giants of the land. The young seemingly insignificant shepherd boy David was the only Israelite that was brave enough to fight the giant Goliath. In Matthew 17 Jesus tell us that “if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed… nothing shall be impossible unto you”. So, even if you feel that you are small and unimportant, think big, and see what God can accomplish in your life!

Staying Alert!

I love the outdoors and God has blessed me with a house that backs up to a wooded area. I usually take a walk in the woods every morning. I have cleared a lot of trails in the woods, and usually keep them raked of rustling leaves so I can walk silently and observe all the creatures that God has created. If you spend any time in the outdoors, you have probably heard the animals making all types of noises. Almost all types of animals have some way of communicating with each other. As I was walking in the woods this morning, I detected an angry chattering from a squirrel. The closer I got, the more squirrels joined in the fussing. They were clearly very disturbed by something. Sometimes you hear two squirrels chasing each other and barking, but this was clearly more than two squirrels and they were very upset. I slowed my walk and quietly continued down the winding trail. I paused as I stepped around a corner, and saw what the squirrels were upset about. Sitting in the middle of the trail, and staring up at a bunch of squirrels was a very disgusted fox! Fortunately for the squirrels, at least one of them was alert and saw the hungry fox before he could pounce on one of them. By the time I arrived every animal within 100 yards was alerted to the hungry fox. All the squirrels lived to eat again the next day! The fox went off hungry, his plans for a tasty meal spoiled by an alert squirrel!

  The Bible talks about the “little foxes that spoil the vines.” Foxes are one of the smaller predators in the outdoors, but they can still cause a lot of havoc. Just as the small foxes cause havoc for the wildlife, there are many small things that can spoil the “vines of our lives.” We need to be alert and vigilant for the “foxes” that come after us. Evil temptations can overtake us if we are not careful. In I Thessalonians 5 Paul talks about the “end times” and warns us to “watch and be sober”.

At times our fellow Christians get so busy that they may not see or hear the “fox” coming. As Christians we need to also watch out for our fellow Christians, just as the first squirrel that spied the fox and warned the other squirrels. Ezekiel 33 talks about the “watchman” whose job is to warn the people of danger and reminds the watchman that he will be held accountable if he see “danger” and fails to warn the people. Live for God and stay alert to the dangers in your spiritual life!