There is a squirrel in my garden!

I had a garden for a couple of years when I first moved to Iowa.  I loved gardening but I hated the fact that I had to put up a fence each year to keep out the bunnies.

Last summer, my husband built me 3 garden boxes.  They are about 3 feet tall and pretty long.  This spring we filled them up with black dirt, compost and garden soil.

All excited, I went to the local garden store and picked out 3 different kinds of tomato plants, onions, 4 different kinds of pepper plants, 2 different kinds of cucumber plants, an acorn squash plant, a pack cilantro and a pack of basil.  I also picked up some snap pea seeds, green bean seeds and radish seeds!

I am ready; I have my fence for the peas and cucumbers.  I have my posts and clips ready for the tomato plants.  I have my map planned out for where each plant will live.

Let’s plant! I was so excited and proud of my cute garden boxes.  After I had everything planted, the weather turned cool and rained for a while, so I was not able to check on my garden for a couple days. When the weather settled, and the sun broke through the clouds, I went out to see what was going on in the garden.

To my surprise, my bell pepper plants had been completely uprooted and were sadly lying on their sides.  There where holes dug all over in each garden box.  Now I thought to myself “I do not think bunnies can jump this high!” “I wondered if the birds were digging for worms after it rained really hard!”  I was confused and I felt like someone had violated my space, my garden!

The next morning I was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking a cup of coffee looking out the window at my garden.  I watched the trespassing enemy bounce through my back yard stopping to nibble on a nut, looking around and then … all of a sudden that SQUIRREL jumped up into one of my garden boxes!  I jumped up out of my chair, and yelled out “NO”, banging on the window. I ran to the back door, onto the deck and yelled out at the trespasser “No, get out of my garden!”  My heart was pounding.  I was upset!  I came back inside grabbed my phone and started searching “how to keep squirrels out of your garden!”

Frustrated, I thought about my garden all day.  I thought about the poor bunnies that I blamed many years ago, and how the suggestions I read on line did not seem realistic.

As the week went on I thought about my garden and that squirrel from a spiritual point of view.

What if that garden was my life, and the squirrel represented the enemy?

• Squirrels are soft and cute, but can deceive and destroy. The enemy is good at being tricky. Deceiving us into making bad choices that seem okay but can destroy lives.

• For so many years I had blamed the bunnies for something that they might not have even been guilty of. We can sometimes blame people for hurting us and come to find out that was not their intention at all.

• That squirrel violated my garden space. In life sometimes our hearts get uprooted and hurt. Sometimes it takes us awhile to trust, replant, and grow again.

• In our Christian life we try so hard to do the right thing. Love one another, be kind, and make good choices. Then one day a squirrel just comes in and digs in our life, making a mess. We react, banging on the window yelling out, and then we think to ourselves, what just happened?

After doing my research on how to keep squirrels out of the garden, I ordered some netting that is suppose to keep birds away from fruit trees.  We nailed wooden posts on each corner of the garden boxes and thumb tacked the net to the side of each box, covering all of the precious plants.

As I looked out at my garden, I thought about God and how He tries so hard to cover us with His net, His word.  He showers us with His love. What joy He gets to watch us grow and to bear fruit.  And when the enemy uproots us, God is there to replant us in even better soil!

Ephesians 6:10-18 talks about the Armor of God. 

I was recently reading A wife’s 40-day Fasting and Prayer Journal by Kaylene Yoder.  I really like how she broke down and explained each piece of armor and the importance. 

God’s armor was created to help us, and protect us from the enemy.  It was not created to weigh us down. I encourage you to always put God’s armor on before you start each day.  Life is full of squirrels who like to dig, disturb and uproot gardens-lives!

How is your spiritual garden?  Do you have a squirrel trespassing?

Please share with me how you have struggled and defeated the enemy!

Many blessings!

Wednesday Grace