Chipmunks

Mary’s Monday Musing to Quilt Encouragement

Chipmunks

The snow-covered mountains towered over us. Trees with immense girth scraped the clouds while streams grey with glacier sediment rushed past us, yet the tourist’s cameras were trained on a little chipmunk munching on a nut. Chipmunks are delightful little animals with a pretty chestnut colored fur coat decorated with a black strip. They are much smaller than squirrels, and their darting actions drew comments about how cute they were. Chipmunks used to be regular visitors to the flat Indiana environment where I grew up, so I trained my camera on the mountains, streams and trees instead.

Isn’t that how we humans are? We tend to take what we are used to for granted and notice what is more unfamiliar. This tendency is true also about the interesting or beautiful sights in our home towns. It can also be true in our relationship with people close to us who we are privileged to see often. Does it sometimes even affect our relationship with our faithful God. Does our routine of church attendance, our easy access to good preaching, our abundance of available bibles sometimes encourage us to take the privileges of becoming a Christian for granted? If we take a good look at the trials of Christians in countries where freedom of religion doesn’t thrive, we can shake off any take-it-for-granted tendencies that want to creep into our life. Find a book that describes the steps necessary to access a Bible in some countries in their own language or show the necessity to read it in secrecy. Read a biography about martyrs who lost their life because they dared to gather together with other Christian believers. Whenever we find that the “pictures” we are taking about our ordinary days aren’t seen through the filter of our love for God and gratitude for His love for us, we can use refocusing. If we ask God to restore our passion for Him, to sharpen our image of Him, to heat up our devotion to Him. He will answer our request.