I walked down the driveway this morning, as the dogs galloped to their respective, well, restrooms. I heard some noise at the bird feeder, and looked over to see a squirrel had taken the entire roof off of the feeder, and was sitting happily in the middle of a big pile of bird seed going at it like he’d found the jackpot of all breakfasts. The funny thing about this bird feeder is it has a “advanced squirrel guard,” which is supposed to keep the squirrels from getting the seed. It sounds good in theory, but we all know that if the squirrel wants to get to the food, he’ll find a way.

Squirrels (and human beings, for that matter) do what they please despite our best efforts to tame or control them. Today, as the sixth anniversary of nine-eleven is splattered all over the news, we are reminded how little we can control, how much we have to trust that God is just and will take care of things all in good time. We can stay up nights and worry about when the next 9-11 might happen or we can pray and find His perfect peace. If we choose joy, we must go deeper than the emotion and events of the day, and know that He is big enough to handle it, and we are not. It really is a pretty easy decision.

For some reason, everyone thinks the squirrels get more than their share around here. No doubt, one is because we’ve lived here for 18 years and have three 25+ year old pecan trees in which not once has one pecan fallen to the ground before it was hastily carried away and buried or, worse, smashed into the already tannin-stained driveway. I suppose there is a universal principle I could quote here from Scripture but mostly I can’t see the forest for the trees without pecans. Maybe, I’ll go get a second cup of coffee and watch the squirrel—and pray for God to be bigger in my life than any circumstance.