"Whoooops!..............."

When I’m driving, I’m usually focused on the immediate area in front of me, the peripheral extreme lost, my mind more concerned with the traffic on all sides. The scenery in any direction can change in a number of ways, buildings erected, torn down, businesses spring up and disappear without any notice from me unless Beth takes over the pilot position for some reason. Friday morning, however, even though just another day, the same old route automatically followed, life brought to me a laugh, a scene never before encountered, something right out of Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner, hard to believe unless you were there. A few hundred yards from where the Beltway meets the Interstate, with all four lanes strangely void of any car other than my old Toyota, my eyes took in a long, thin line slithering across the road. Naturally, I assumed the obvious. Wrong. Within a few seconds, the truth was unbelievable, but plain as day. It was a squirrel, his belly pressed to the ground, going just as fast as he could, looking like some soldier crawling through a battlefield with live ammo buzzing overhead. He was scared, desperate, and burning it up. Why, I don’t know. There would nowhere to go once he reached the four-foot concrete wall separating east from west; and he did make it there successfully. My own situation, though, demanded my exit and there is this mental image yet held of him standing with his back up against that abutment, his hand spread and glued as well, trying to determine his next move. The Bible tells me that His eye is on the sparrow. Surely such promise can also be applied to small grey rodents. Nonetheless, it remains to be said that His creation keeps Him busy, none of us without error and all of us prone to exhibiting that condition on a regular basis. No guarantees are given whereby we can know with assurance tomorrow we will still be here. What we can possess is His anchor-line with us in the next step. Hopefully, the next time I pass that particular spot no evidence of mishap will suggest my friend survived…..