My four year old G-daughter has been beyond excited to be a beginner ‘patio/deck gardener’. She had been testing her skill a bit with ‘yard gardening’ only to realized nature has a way of ‘force sharing’ when beautiful singing birds find your tiny green strawberries before you find one shiny red one.
The next level would be trying your vegetables, that might mean to her a tomatoe plant with a pepper or two on your upper deck right outside your kitchen view.
In trying to explain, yes, squirrels can climb steps and even the deck post faster that one can try and race up those steps to protect their garden. Racing with a squirrel, rabbit and birds for a fresh treat can be both exasperating and exhilarating at the same time!
I thought how one’s soul often thirist for water in a dry and thirsty land. How to find water where one’s soul will thirist no more!
The Psalmist seem to understand. ”You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.“ (Psalms 63:1-5)
“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?“Psalms 42:1-2
John 4 records a beautiful analogy of; “exasperating and exhilarating at the same time!
John 4;13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14)but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
WOW! What a beautiful story of promise to share with children and ourselves alike!
thedailylily.com 
I love the photo of “Grumpy, the Squirrel”!
And what you wrote, Sara, about your G-daughter and her experiences:
“She had been testing her skill a bit with ‘yard gardening’ only to realized nature has a way of ‘force sharing’ …”
And…
“Racing with a squirrel, rabbit and birds for a fresh treat can be both exasperating and exhilarating at the same time!”
I can identify some with both as I have been ‘force-sharing’ my Swiss chard plants with a squirrel! And the squirrel seems to always win the race.
But the scripture that you, Sara, have shared and reminded me of many times (“You care for people and animals alike, O Lord.” Psalm 36:6), makes me pause to think and realize that the squirrel also has a place at God’s table to be “fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;”, just like “the deer pants for streams of water”.
Drinking that water as you wrote about from John 4:13 really is a “beautiful story of promise to share with children and ourselves alike!”
Thank you for sharing it with us! Thank you for unfolding the scriptures and connecting them to these kind of examples.
The footnotes for Psalm 42:1,2 (NLT) says: “ as the life of a deer depends upon water, so our lives depend upon God. Those who seek him and long to understand him find eternal life. Feeling separated from God, this psalmist Yes wouldn’t rest until he restored his relationship with God because he knew that his very life depended on it………”
I couldn’t help but notice the squirrel’s 🐿️ name……”Grumpy”. He sure doesn’t look grumpy, as he enjoys some of your G-daughter’s plants/ vegetables.😂🤣 Thanks for sharing your teaching moments, Sara, with your precious “DOLL” G-daughter.🥰💕 I know she is having the time of her life learning new things with some of her family. 🙏
Smile Tammy, Grumpy got his name when G-Ma dismissed him from the table!
Debi’s quote from me really shows my emotions, “both exasperating and exhilarating at the same time!”
Go Grumpy Go but the other way! 😂
The scripture from what Sara wrote, “I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.” And this from Tammy’s footnotes, “Those who seek him and long to understand him find eternal life.” got me thinking more on the lesson and examples God provides in nature to get our attention and help us to see truth.
I looked up the word sanctuary and found it said, “a nature reserve”. Nature reserve was defined as, “a tract of land managed so as to preserve its flora, fauna, and physical features.”
Some of us, like myself, have small ‘nature reserves’ that we try to ‘manage’. I have noticed that my vegetables and other plants are all seekers of water. As the soil gets drier, or in drought, their roots have to dig deeper, seek harder, grow longer in order to obtain life-giving water. In times of plentiful rain and water they tend to have more shallow roots as they don’t have to try/seek very hard to obtain a drink.
I think Jeremiah 29:13 is a good reminder that seeking takes some effort. ”You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”
Jesus speaks so kind and loving to the Father’s children…Can you imagine Jesus wants to sit down and dine with us. I love the visual it’s mutual. And, we want to dine with Him even though we might learn a truth about ourselves. Then when you meditate on His reason for wanting to fellowship by dining with us is LOVE we thirst no more.
To the Church in Laodicea
…19{Those I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent. 20{Behold,I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me.” {Revelation 3}