Up a Tree
The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? Psalm 118:6
We need simple reminders of what God is capable of doing for us. Louis Lotz shared a great little story in All God’s Creatures.
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There was a hard rain and strong wind last night, and the morning light revealed that a tree had come down, smashing through my fence. I gathered up my tools and walked out back to repair the damage. Passing an old sugar maple, I spied my neighbor’s cat, a gray tabby, up on the branches. She’s a cute little girl, always hanging around our back porch, looking for a handout or some scratches behind her soft ears. I watched as she tried to descend headfirst then tail first, but every attempt ended in failure. She was stuck up there.
A firefighter friend of mine told me that the fire department really does receive calls about cats stuck in a tree. I asked, “What do you say to people when they call about a cat?” He said, “We tell that nobody ever found a cat skeleton in a tree. Sooner or later, they always get down.”
The problems I face—great and small—have me up a tree. But the situation is never hopeless. “Things are never as bad as they seem,” said Miss Maudie in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. The darkest nights always end in dawn, and the worst storms eventually blow themselves out. No matter how dark the room is, there is always a door. This is not a prescription for becoming passive and apathetic but for the honest recognition that I live out my life in the palm of God’s hand and that nothing is going to happen to me that I can’t handle with His help.
At day’s end, with sore muscles and a repaired fence, I passed the maple tree again. The cat was gone. Somehow, someway, by God’s grace, we always get down. After all, nobody ever found a cat skeleton up a tree.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8 28 (NIV).
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Heavenly Father, thank You for who You are. Help us to be more like You in every way. AMEN.