Chipmunk Cheeks

O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
Psalm 104:24

"The Lord delights in the expressions of his wisdom...Whether you look near or far, whether you look for bigness or smallness, the wonders of nature stagger the mind with the wisdom woven through it all."
~ John Piper in The Pleasures of God

On this rainy, vacation day tucked under the eaves I seek some solitude. With a warm coat and a pot of tea
I savor the silence in the Olympic National Forest.

The trees that surround this little cabin whisper in the wind that all is calm.

The exception is the scritch, scratching of paws on tree bark. I spy a chipmunk. And this chipmunk is on a mission!

There is a squirrel feeder nailed to one of the many trees near the porch. It is filled with corn kernels and the chipmunk wants breakfast. He jumps in to stuff as many kernels he can inside his cheeks.

He comes out to sit on the perch and view the world, or watch out for potential danger.

Beginning with his cute little paws, he pushes out one nugget from his overstuffed cheeks and he feasts on it. Holding it carefully, moving it around to nibble it, somewhat methodically. His cute bulging cheeks wiggle with this munching.

After he finishes one kernel, he rubs his lower jaw with his paws and out pops another piece of corn. His cheeks were a storehouse of individual treasures that he tenderly enjoyed one by one.

I watched him intently as he continued with his meal until the chubby cheeks grew slim. He washed his face with moistened paws.

To my surprise, he jumped back in the feeder to fill his cheek storehouse for more. He was in and out three more times, three more cheek-fulls.

Enjoying his little face and wiggling cheeks, I wondered what object lesson could be taken from this peaceful and charming scene.

The feeder and the food is provided by the owner of the house. The chipmunk comes to feast on his generosity. God has provided spiritual food to satisfy those he has created. But we must come to the feeder to eat.

The chipmunk gathered and stuffed his cheeks full before he would step out and feast on them. The task of coming to eat requires a time to do so. This often requires saying no other things that clamor for our attention. To read the Word of God is like climbing in the feeder and gathering.

He could have just run away and stored them somewhere else, hoarding instead of enjoying. As Christians we easily do this by attending church, taking notes from a good sermon but they are set aside. Or doing all the activities that are offered (a Bible study, Awana, a small group, etc.), filling up our calendars so there is no room for sitting down to read the Word for ourselves. But because they are Bible related things, we think we have feasted. Gathering such things is good but we need to take time to meditate on the truths of the Bible and feast on His spiritual food for ourselves. The enemy of our souls know that to get us busy is to miss the most important thing that will truly satisfy.

Writing in a journal what you are learning from a passage of Scripture is like calling up a kernel from your storehouse. It is asking the Holy Spirit to reveal God's truth and what He wants you to learn from it. To eat the kernel is to meditate, ruminate, mull over, and pray through the passage. It is waiting for God's message to enter the very core of who you are and sense the Spirit's work.

I've found that this has to be more than a 15 minute quiet time in a devotional book, reading what someone else wrote on one particular verse. It requires some time of solitude, being alone. This means you have to be okay with silence. Once you begin reading the Words of Life on your own (with a good study Bible in hand like the ESV Study Bible) the Holy Spirit can guide you to God's amazing storehouse and you begin to want more. So, you go back to the feeder to dig to the depths of His riches!

My summer has been like this. I've had scattered days and weekends spent in solitude. It has been sublime. My cheeks have been stuffed so many times. I've also stopped long enough to feast on each truth, tasting it's delights, digesting it fully, and finding satisfaction in my soul.

The Holy Spirit has guided me to word pictures throughout Scripture that I could then apply to a painting tutorial. Watercolor painting is a new medium for me to express my praise. I hope to share the kernels I've stuffed my cheeks with and the paintings that I've applied to them in the coming weeks.