We live next to an undeveloped field, a virtual playground for all creatures wild, both great and small. And yet, despite the open spaces, the chipmunks in the entire region seem to want to congregate under the paving stones of our patio, burrowing deep underneath. They are small and cute and create havoc. The patio is once again beginning to cave in ever so slightly.
And so, about this time of year, we set out the trap, a small wire box that snares the wily characters in the midst of their antics without hurting them. Last year, I stopped counting after 24, catching as many as three a day. After the first half dozen, I didn’t even bait the trap anymore. And still they came.
I know that within this anecdote is a lesson about temptation, but today as I took my first chipmunk of the day to a local forest preserve to let him go, I thought about yet a different perspective.
When those little doors flipped down and entrapped the intruder, that chipmunk’s little knees were shaking. He thought he was done for. I am sure that the car ride to the park didn’t help his mindset. And whether or not he had a repentant heart or just kicked himself for getting caught, he thought he was going to die at the hands of an angry homeowner. I removed the cage from the back of the car, set it down on the pavement, opened the trap door, and released him. I let him go, freeing him into a place so much better than under our patio, a new habitation, lush with trees and vegetation. Despite his repeated trespasses and transgressions, despite the destruction that he had wrought or what he deserved, he was free to go.
That, my friend, is what the grace of God is all about. It is not about our performance, but about who He is.
“O my God, I am ashamed
and blush to lift my face to You, my God,
for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads,
and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens…”
yet our God has not forsaken us in our bondage,
but has extended to us
His steadfast love…
Ezra 9. 6,9
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