Friends Look Out for Each Other

A friend loves at all times. Proverbs 17:17 (NIV)

Farm living as a child brought me very close to nature (with the help of my grandfather). We had a little stream that ran through the pasture and I used to spend a lot of time hunting for amphibians of all kinds. I didn’t catch them; I just watched them. That was enough to placate my curiosity. Lori Hatcher (All God’s Creatures) tells us about her grandson’s friend, a salamander.

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As I tucked my four-year-old grandson, Collin, into bed one night, I read him a story (that night we recounted highlights of Joshua and the battle of Jericho) and prayed with him. His eyes, droopy with sleep, had almost closed when he sat up in bed with a gasp.

“Gigi,” he said. “I forgot to release my salamander.”

My grands have a small pond in their backyard where they spend hours catching frogs, lizards, and salamanders. They place them into carefully constructed outdoor habitats containing food and water and delight in learning their ways.

Their parents have two rules: First, they must treat every animal kindly. Second, they must release whatever they catch at the end of the day.

Collin remembered this second rule as he was drifting off to sleep.

To be honest, the last thing I wanted to do was go stumbling through the woods in the dark to release a salamander. But rules were rules, and this was a good one. 

“I’m glad you remembered, Collin,” I said.” We don’t want the salamander to die. Let me grab a flashlight, and you can show me where you left it.”

I didn’t know if salamanders were nocturnal (it turns out they are) or if we woke it up, but when Collin led me to the side of the stream where he’d left the creature, there it sat, gazing up at us with shiny black eyes.

I knew you’d be back, it seemed to say.

Ten minutes later, as I tucked Collin into bed for the second time, he closed his eyes with a satisfied smile.

“Thanks, Gigi,” he said. “We had to release him. He was my friend.”

“And you were his,” I said, hugging him tightly. “Friends look out for each other.”

It seems they had always been, and always would be, friends. Time could change, but not that.  Often attributed to A. A. Milne

What a Friend We Have in Jesus

Father God, thank You for all the lessons we learn from nature, from Your creation. Help us to remember rules one and two as we navigate through life with You as our Guide. AMEN.