A lot of squirrelly stuff has been posted on Facebook lately: videos galore showing the ingenuity, single-mindedness and downright dogged determination (“squirreled” determination?) of the pesky rodents to get to bird feeders. It’s amazing what minefields of squirrel-baffle contraptions they will go through to devour the expensive feed we bird lovers attempt to lavish on our feathered friends.

When I was a kid my mechanical engineer father attempted to devise a squirrel-proof birdfeeder which hung from a wire strung across the creek that ran through our front yard. He had pulleys and mechanisms to bring the feeder to him to fill, and then he maneuvered it back to its home above the middle of the creek. It took the squirrels about 15 minutes to figure out how to walk the wire. Daddy then wrapped that wire with barbed wire. It took the squirrels a little longer to walk as they had to stop from time to time and lick their little barb-pricked paws, but they were not deterred. Daddy was too kind-hearted to leave the barbwire in place, especially once we saw it didn’t do any good. He just decided to enjoy watching the wire-walking show the squirrels put on.

Pondering the persistence of these squirrels in their passionate pursuit of birdseed, I wondered if there is anything I’m that passionate or persistent about. “If at first you don’t succeed – just give up,” has pretty much been my motto throughout life.

I like to think I’m passionate about my relationship with Jesus, but I wonder if I’d cave at the first impediment anyone tried to put up in my pursuit of Him.

Fortunately God doesn’t try to keep me from Him with booby traps. He Himself is the Hound of Heaven, doggedly pursuing all of us as we run from Him, erecting our own forms of baffles to keep Him away. But like the squirrels and the birdseed, He will keep after us until we surrender, take down the barbed wire we have strung, and decide we might as well relax and enjoy His show.