Lessons learned from a quail....

I hope you all had a wonderful week this past week, dear friends. Ours was a bit aggravating. After taking Dodi to a doctor who intimated I had been poisoning my beloved Dodi, and an insurance company that would not accept the prescriptions said Doctor wrote for Dodi....I was just about ready to do physical harm to someone or something. Well, the clutter in our bedroom bore the venting of my wrath. (Much better than anyone living in my house!!!) So our bedroom is now much better arranged and minus a huge pile of things we no longer need....

We also had a 'funeral' for one of the quail that Grandpa (Dodi's father) had given Little Critter about 4 or 5 years ago. It was a simple service....Dodi dug a hole, we each prayed for/about Bob White the quail (yes, that was his name....what can I say, he's a Bob White Quail!) We threw dirt on him and then Dodi finished filling the hole while Litte Critter fashioned a marker to mark the spot. It was simple, sweet and quite innocent. Although we're getting quite a 'pet cemetary' out there by the chickens....hmmmm.

Later as I contemplated the day, I thought about the lessons we'd learned over the past several years from the quail. Here are some quite foolish little birds, that seldom appeared to recognize us as the ones who fed them daily or provided their water, didn't seem to like us much and tried to ignore us whenever possible. So what lessons did we learn from them? Well, we learned that worry doesn't really help anything. These little birds didn't worry if we were late with their feed, they just seemed to know there'd always be food. If the temps went up, and the water got low, they knew we'd fill their water bottle for them, or Papa would send some rain for them. When the 'house' Little Critter had made for them started to fall apart, they didn't panic, or try to sue us for faulty workmanship....they just calmly moved the pieces of the cardboard box into an arrangement that met their expectations. They never let us pet them or hold them without a frenzied flight around their cage, they never gave any lavious or showy displays of affection for us, they didn't even provide enough eggs for us to use for anything. And yet.....

We learned Papa will always provide for us in one way or another. If our shelter doesn't look the way we wanted, He'll make sure we have shelter that is sufficient for our needs. When it becomes too hot to do much of anything, Papa will provide a breeze to cool us or rain to dampen us, or clouds to cut the heat a bit. When we're lonely, Papa will send other birds to talk to us, cheer us or just listen to our cries and commiserate. And when it's time to leave this place, Papa will provide those that love us with the ammenities to 'plant' us with love.

All this we learned from these silly little birds. Hmmm. I wonder what other things we could learn from our pets if we took the time to really think about it? Could be pretty amazing, ey?
Now I have a question for my readers to help me with. As we buried Bob White the quail, Little Critter's prayer which was amazingly sweet and innocent, conveyed a certainty that only a child could have that Bob White and our other now gone pets will be waiting for us in Heaven. I can find no mention in Scripture that says critters will be in Heaven other than the comments Papa made when the critters were made and He pronouced them good. So what do you think? Will critters be in heaven or not? I would love to have Scriptural references, but they aren't required. I personally find it hard to believe Papa would create all these wonderful critters, pronounce them good and then say "Well, you were cute, you were fun, but when you die you just rot." Somehow that doesn't sound right to me. Let me know what you think. And as you go thru this week, may you find the love letters Papa sends you in your everyday life....even if they're from quail...heheheh. Shalom, Spitfire