Our home is blessed to be in the shadow of a giant oak tree, with more on the block. One of the resulting bonuses, which makes up for the millions of falling leaves, are the grey squirrels.
They chase one another up and around trees, chatter from the tops of utility poles, and skitter the skinny fence tops as if running from an invisible enemy. They are energetic, entertaining creatures.
This time of year they add another trick to their repertoire. They bury nuts: acorns, walnuts, hickory nuts, and even chestnuts when they can find them. Unlike some animals which store their winter stash in one place, squirrels are “scatter-hoarders,” burying their treasure all over the place, one or two nuts in one place, and then another. If you own a yard near a squirrel population, you know this well already.
The curious thing to me always has been how they find what they bury in so many different places over several weeks of summer and fall. It turns out that I’m not the only one who asks questions like this, and research has shown that these amazing creatures find up to 95 per cent of the buried nuts the following spring.
Even the researchers aren’t exactly sure how the squirrels can do this, but believers are confident that God, in His wisdom, has enabled them. When God answers Job, His message (Job 38-41) includes the instinctive behavior He has built into such creatures as the horse, the ostrich, raven, mountain goat, stork, and eagle.
All these have in common that their Creator fitted them in special ways not only to survive, but to thrive. The diversity itself testifies to the wonder of Creation and its Author, who even feeds sparrows.
Jesus reminds us (Matthew 6) that if our Father is good and creative enough to do that, He is most worthy of our trust. If He has installed a nutty GPS system in squirrels, we, too, are safe in His care.
“I know that you can do all things;
no plan of yours can be thwarted.”
Job 42:2