The Brown Woodchuck

I was halfway into one of those winding mountain roads when I saw something brown and fuzzy standing on the side of the asphalt.  I have seen a thousand squirrels so I knew it was some other little critter.  And then the picture registered.  I had spotted my first woodchuck.  As quickly as I could find a place wide enough to turn around, I headed back down the way I had come hoping to see that never before seen creature once again.  Of course, he was gone.  He did not wait for an encore performance.  For a moment it was there, revealing himself to me, and then he was gone.    

I have learned over the years of living on the farm immersed in creation that what the creation reveals to us is of the "now you see it, now you don't" category of revelation.  Nothing seen once is ever seen again.  No tree, no stream, and no sunrise is ever the same.  Everything is constantly changing.  What is seen in the now is gone in the future.  One of the things which this reality causes is an awareness of the value of paying attention to the present moment.  The present moment is the only moment that woodchuck revealed himself and it is also the only moment God chooses to reveal Himself.    

As surely as God was prowling around the Garden when the first couple were its residents, so is He still prowling around this ever changing, always unfolding creation in which we all live.  It is not only full of things like woodchucks, rivers, and trees, but it is also full of divine revelation.  To pay attention is to see what is mostly missed by those who live looking at where they want to be instead of where they are.  God is not the bush and the tree, but they both bear the essence of the divine creative hand just like each one of us.  If we can only live paying attention to where we are and who is with us, we will see the brown woodchucks on the side of the road and the God who has put everything around us in its place.