God and the Vole
I was just taking a break and walked out to the little fountain in the back corner of my garden yesterday. The water level was drastically low, and high pitched squeaks were coming from inside the submerged basin. As I peered over the rim, a tiny vole was swimming round and round in the bottom 6 inches of water desperate to get out. At least I think it was a vole; small, grey, mouse-like but with a nose blunted for digging and very small eyes.
This little guy was working as hard as he could, but because of the low water level, he'd never get out on his own. So I put two short pieces of wood diagonally into the water hoping the vole could climb on the wood and up to the top. Amazingly, the vole just kept swimming. Each time he made a lap, he climbed over the wood, and kept on swimming, ignoring the help that had been provided.
And it struck me how many times I've done the very same thing. I've been in a bad place, and struggled to stay there rather than change. How many times had a stick been placed in my way and all I did was curse the stick and keep on in the same pattern?
Well, with a third stick, I finally forced-and not too gently- the vole onto the first two sticks. He was just about spent so I let him rest a bit and when I looked back he had successfully climbed all the way up the sticks to the top of the fountain and dry land.
Thank you God for the sticks You placed in my life.
This little guy was working as hard as he could, but because of the low water level, he'd never get out on his own. So I put two short pieces of wood diagonally into the water hoping the vole could climb on the wood and up to the top. Amazingly, the vole just kept swimming. Each time he made a lap, he climbed over the wood, and kept on swimming, ignoring the help that had been provided.
And it struck me how many times I've done the very same thing. I've been in a bad place, and struggled to stay there rather than change. How many times had a stick been placed in my way and all I did was curse the stick and keep on in the same pattern?
Well, with a third stick, I finally forced-and not too gently- the vole onto the first two sticks. He was just about spent so I let him rest a bit and when I looked back he had successfully climbed all the way up the sticks to the top of the fountain and dry land.
Thank you God for the sticks You placed in my life.