if you could spring as well as climb

We sat in the late afternoon sunshine on the deck … a leisurely moment … time to enjoy each other’s company.  We were drawn to the squirrel playing in the trees.  He could jump from tree to tree … no matter how thin the limbs … he scampered easily from playground to playground.

In Ewing’s poem … the squirrel is talking …

    Oh boy, down there, I can’t believe that what they say is true!
    We squirrels surely cannot have an enemy in you;
    We have so much in common, my dear friend, it seems to me
    That I can really feel for you, and you can feel for me.

    Some human beings might not understand the life we lead;
    If we asked Dr. Birch to play, no doubt he’d rather read;
    He hates all scrambling restlessness, and chattering, scuffling noise;
    If he could catch us we should fare no better than you boys.

    But you, dear boy, you know so well the bliss of climbing trees,
    Of scrambling up and sliding down, and rocking in the breeze,
    Of cracking nuts and chewing cones, and keeping cunning hoards,
    And all the games and all the sport and fun a wood affords.
…
    The more we think of what he says, the more we’re sure it’s “chaff,”
    We sit beneath the shadow of our bushy tails and laugh;
    Hey, presto! Friend, come up, and let us hide and seek and play,
    If you could spring as well as climb, what fun we’d have to-day!

As the evening has deepened, I’ve asked the Father about the squirrel … and the word impressed upon my heart is “freedom.”  

[T]he man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does. ~James 1:25

God created the squirrels … he blessed them with a certain freedom.  We don’t have that same physical freedom … but God came to set us free … in spirit, heart, soul, mind … 

Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. ~ Peterson’s paraphrase of Galatians 5:1

I want to live in the freedom God has given me … joyfully scampering in the treetops of the soul …