These little guys are some of my favoirtes! Robert and I have been to Estes Park, CO several times – on our honeymoon, a few years later with the kids, and on our 25th wedding anniversary motorcycle trip.  One of the highlights is going to a mountain top by trolley car lift and feeding the chipmunks there.  Going up, watching scenery change all around me, never fails to overwhelm me with the power of our Creator God.

Once on top, the gift store has bags of peanuts to feed the chipmunks.  After getting the bags, it’s a short walk out the deck to get down where the chipmunks are.  We would settle in, put a peanut in our hands and wait.  Soon, one chipmunk would arrive, snatch the unshelled peanut and run off a little way to eat it.  As we stayed totally still and quiet, all that could be heard around us was the munch and crunch!  In a few minutes, that chipmunk would come back, and then other chipmunks would join him, and as they got braver, they would take the peanut, and eat in front of us.

Now, the chipmunks had no idea who we were, or what we wanted.  Hundreds of people every day take that ride and feed them.  We could have been cold blooded “killers”, out to have chipmunk stew for supper.  We could have put poison on those peanuts, and they would have died. All they knew is that we had peanuts in our hands, and we looked innocent enough!  We looked right, sounded right, and offered food that tasted awesome.  And that was all they cared about.

Thinking about church tomorrow (it’s Saturday night), and the Christian radio that I listen to, and the books that I read, it occurred to me – how many times am I like that chipmunk?  Do I obey the Scripture that says to test everything I see and hear as to whether it is true to God’s Word (I John 4:1)?  Or do I take it at face value and believe that because it looks good, sounds good, and feels good, then it must BE good?

God has called us to be responsible in what we believe and live by, and to determine if we are following the one true God and not just someone offering us “food” that may lead to our ruin.  May He help us to be that kind of believer!