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My yard is filled with treasure hunters.  

Day after day, from the moment the sun first peeks over the hilltops until its last good-night as darkness settles, these treasure hunters are hard at work.  They don’t consult maps, and they don’t utilize any equipment, but they still manage to locate an incredible amount of bounty—and they’re committed to hoarding it in super-secret stashes.  Who are these mysterious treasure hunters?  They’re none other than one of my favorite backyard animals—squirrels.  

All my life, I’ve believed that God created squirrels just so He could laugh at their antics!  Whether they’re nibbling on nuts or basking on sun-warmed branches or impudently barking at strangers, these creatures are some of the most charming of backyard denizens.  For one thing, they’re quite attractive—both the sleek gray squirrels with their silver-tipped tails and the much larger red squirrels, their coats burnished as bronze as the autumn leaves.  Secondly, as a single glance at their keen faces reveals, squirrels are highly intelligent.  Scientists have discovered squirrels signaling to each other with their quirky tail positions, employing erratic maneuvering to avoid predators, and strategizing solutions to complex problems (like perfecting a method to outwit the supposedly “squirrel-proof” baffles on our birdfeeders).  But perhaps the most galvanizing characteristic of squirrels is their flair for the dramatic.  These cheeky little acrobats of field and forest have no scruples about openly showing off.  They delicately balance on the thinnest twigs and swing like trapeze artists from fragile vines and make themselves happily at home in the dizzying canopy of a hundred-foot patriarchal tree.  I’ve even seen them perform death-defying leaps between trees, launching from the tips of the branches and soaring through the air in a reckless way that made me first catch my breath, then laughingly applaud their bravado.  

Cute, clever, and courageous—squirrels are constantly active any time of the year.  But right now, their usual playful antics have been replaced by “treasure hunting”—gathering and storing food for the long winter ahead. 

For them, this is urgent business—a matter of life or death.  Every week, an adult squirrel needs to eat its body weight—about 1.5 pounds—in nuts.  During the winter, that food source won’t be available, and squirrels feel the effects (they can lose 25% of their body weight in one season!).  So it’s imperative that squirrels collect every morsel they can find now to mitigate the challenges of the harsh weather to come.  And these little creatures rise to the challenge in unbelievable ways.  Working at a frantic rate of 25 nuts an hour, a squirrel will, in an entire fall season, stash away a whopping 10,000 nuts.  

At this time of year, our property is especially popular with the squirrels due to our abundance of black walnut trees.  All summer long, the nuts have slowly ripened, snug within their bumpy green shells.  And now they’re hanging heavy on the branches, and the race is on for the squirrels to collect all they can.  At any given time during the daylight hours, a glance outside our windows will reveal literally dozens of these little creatures scrambling frenetically around our land.  Their speed and dexterity are mind-boggling—scrabbling up the tree trunks, claws scratching on the rough bark; bounding through the grass in arcing, oversized leaps; stretching their jaws around gigantic walnuts with self-satisfied airs.  We even hear the staccato skittering as they dash across our roof!  And as I watch them scurrying frantically about, I’m reminded that they aren’t the only creatures who go treasure hunting.  We humans do it too.  

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19-20 ESV).  This command makes us pause, doesn’t it?  No, we don’t jealously accrue black walnuts, but we certainly accumulate treasures for ourselves.  Our “nuts” can take the form of new cars, sleek laptops, designer clothing, fat IRAs, coveted careers and dream vacations and a perfect appearance.  But even though the treasures for which we hunt may be a bit different, the process of treasure hunting is much the same for both humans and squirrels.    

First of all, it’s fast-paced.  The scurrying squirrels are working so hectically because they know they only have a short amount of time to collect all they can.  In the same way, we humans can begin to treat our lives as one long treasure hunt—the goal being to acquire as much as possible in this short lifetime.  Secondly, it’s competitive.  During the nut collection season, these usually amiable squirrels become quite territorial.  They hide their acquisitions from other squirrels, they bark menacingly at those who threaten their personal space, and they rush to beat other squirrels to the supply of nuts.  As humans, we’re all out to compete as well—and we can be pretty ruthless in the process.  Lastly, it’s all-consuming.  This time of year, gathering nuts is the sole pursuit of a squirrel, filling their waking hours.  And the search for treasures can easily become just that obsessive to us, a whirling vortex that engulfs everything else.  

But though our treasure hunting has much in common with that of the squirrels, there’s one important difference:  it’s futile.  Hoarding is a vital survival strategy for squirrels, ensuring their well-being during a cold, harsh winter.  But for us, it’s a distraction, a diversion, even a danger.  And while the squirrels have a purpose for what they amass, we simply don’t.  Our “treasures” are subject to decay, disappointment, and disaster.  An elegant mansion can burn to ashes.  A prized convertible can be involved in a crash.  Money can be stolen, investments can plummet, and beauty can fade.  

What’s more, our frantic race for treasures only seems to create more emptiness.  Have you ever noticed that one thrill is not enough?  Over and over again, we learn that what we thought would satisfy doesn’t deliver.  As soon as one novelty fades, we’re on to the next.  The “treasure hunt” beguiles us down a path of craving more and more and more—stumbling after a mirage that never fulfills.

To see this in action, look no further than the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19.  This man’s life revolved around literal “treasure”:  he was a tax collector.  In Christ’s day, tax collectors were some of the most despised members of Palestinian society.  They were viewed as traitors by other Jews because they worked for the hated Roman government, and they were ostracized socially and culturally.  Even worse, they also were known to be immoral and unethical, customarily inflating tax rates and padding their own pockets with the excess. 

Yet for a man who had spent his whole life treasure-hunting, Zacchaeus must have come up empty-handed. What other reason would have driven him to join the crowds waiting to see Jesus walk by—even leading him to climb a sycamore tree for a better view?  But the beauty of this story is that Zacchaeus didn’t just see Jesus; He learned that he was seen by Jesus.  Look what happened after his encounter with God:  “And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, ‘Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold’” (Luke 19:8 ESV).

In a strikingly redemptive response, Zacchaeus switched his script from getting to giving.  But why?  How could a man absorbed by material gains change his perspective so suddenly and completely?  The reason is simple:  after a lifetime of fruitless searching, Zacchaeus realized that he had finally found the true Treasure, compared to Whom all earthly trinkets paled.  And now that he was no longer focused on money and possessions, he could share them with those in his path. 

Zacchaeus’s actions still provide the best antidote for those caught in the trap of treasure hunting today.  This is the essence of becoming free from the never-ending search for more and more:  not selfishly hoarding our treasures, but sharing them as the blessings they are.   

Once again, watching the squirrels has illustrated this truth for me.  (Who knew these little creatures could teach us so much?)  You see, when squirrels are stashing nuts, they’re doing more than greedily amassing resources.  Instead, they’re actually sowing seeds.

As you may already know, squirrels bury most of the nuts they find.  During the bleak winter months, they’re then able to locate them, using a memorized mental map and the identifying scent of their saliva.  But squirrels don’t reclaim all the nuts they bury; some are left underground to germinate.  As a matter of fact, squirrels are instrumental agents of reforestation, credited with planting thousands of trees a year. 

Could it be that this example provides the antidote to frenzied treasure hunting in our own lives?  

“[G]ive, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you” (Luke 6:38 ESV).  There’s much that could be said about generosity and responsibility and good stewardship.  There are many reasons to disentangle ourselves from the frenetic treasure hunt.  But here’s the decision in a nutshell (pun intended!):  we can keep, or we can reap.

You see, if we keep to ourselves what God has given us—money, time, possessions—the blessings and benefits spread no further than ourselves.  But if we turn the focus outward rather than inward—if we sow our blessings into the world around us—then we reap fruits that are multiplied beyond our wildest imagination.  Think of the squirrels again.  A nut that is eaten is just that…a single nut.  It might provide a quick snack, but its impact is momentary and minimal.  However, if that nut is planted, it becomes a tree—a tree that will in turn produce hundreds of thousands of nuts, year after year after year.  I’m reminded of Jesus’s words in John 12:24:  “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (ESV). 

This approach is far from easy.  It’s counterintuitive, to say the least, because we humans have a hard time loosening our grasp on our resources.  Maybe it’s pride—I want more than he has!  Maybe it’s fear—I’m worried I won’t have enough!  Maybe it’s apathy—I’m just not interested.  But regardless of our reasoning, learning to view our blessings biblically is a vital skill.  It’s the only mindset that will release us from the slavery of treasure hunting, and it’s the only pathway to stop keeping and start reaping.  

So this fall, when you see the “treasure hunt” of the energetic squirrels, take a moment to appreciate their antics.  Laugh at their cockiness and admire their diligence and marvel at the ingenuity with which the Creator has blessed them.  And remember something else…the very trees that now sustain these creatures are often products of the seeds sown by earlier generations of squirrels.  Let’s determine today to stop keeping and start reaping—to release the treasure God has given us and then watch it multiply beyond our wildest dreams.  After all, our earthly resources can be a misery or a miracle…and the choice is ours.  

Did you enjoy this post? What are some ways you step aside from the frantic treasure hunt of our society? Let me know in the comments! Also, for more information about squirrels, check out the articles from One Kind Planet, the Ithaca Journal, and Wild Birds Unlimited, which supplied the facts and statistics for this blog.

Also, did you hear the exciting news? My story “A Choice to Change” won an honorable mention in the international fall writing contest from The Write Practice and has been published online by Short Fiction Break! In this story, former drug addict Jake is trying to rewrite his past…until the pressure to return to his old life seems too unbearable. But when he’s ready to turn his back on everything he’s believed, could the grace he’s been searching for appear in an unexpected place? Please read my story now by clicking here and let me know what you think!