From The Backwoods Pew

Have you ever heard the old saying, “Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink?” I do not like water in my woods. That is water where water is not supposed to be. I was doing a routine check on a stand of timber that bordered a notorious beaver stream one day. Beavers had seemed to materialize from out of nowhere, and dammed the stream. Now, it had been a few months since I had been in to check this area, thus finding an active dam was not a surprise. Finding a fresh food pile next to the lodge was a bit of a disappointment, however.

Food piles are what beavers create when they are getting ready for the winter. It wasn’t that the beavers were active that caused me to frown, but rather that winter was approaching. When winter approaches, even in the South, along with it comes ice. I

don’t much care for ice, especially since it has to get cold to make it. Too much time has passed since the days of my childhood, and I have lost my enthusiasm for cold weather. The beaver sets about building a food pile next to his lodge just in case Antill the ice gets thick, and just in case it lasts a while. You see, a food pile is a collection of sticks and small trees that a beaver will cut off and float to his lodge. Once there he makes a floating pile or mat. These sticks will be accessible from under the water, under the ice, allowing the beaver to have a meal when the pond or swamp is frozen over, and he cannot find a hole to climb out of. Since he keeps all of his lodge entrances under water, a frozen pond means he is trapped at home or at least under the water surrounding his home;thus the food pile. Now consider for a moment a delinquent beaver. He is distracted. He knows winter is coming, and there is a need to gather supplies. Failure to prepare could be a capital offense, causing the death of himself or his family. He decides to get busy with the food pile. At first all goes well. He has found several juicy cottonwood saplings, and some willow was growing just upstream. But then he saw something else. It was magnificent and awesome. He had to have it on his food pile. He would be the envy of all. He began to gnaw and chew. It was tough all right, but what a beauty. Finally, he had it on his pile. Yes, it was tall and slender, and had a single bright, green “leaf” on the top, with the word “Johnson Road” on it. It did look

good on his food pile.

Eager to add to the diversity of his pile, he began to look further and further from the lodge. He returned late one evening with a tall, spindly-looking pole. It did not have any leaves, but it was shiny. He wondered what the man meant when he heard him screaming across the yard about a TV antenna?

Yes, he soon had a mighty fine food pile, only there wasn’t much food on it. He did have several street signs, the TV antenna, a mailbox and post, and two orange traffic cones. The beaver had become distracted. He had spent his time pursuing items that would not help him when the cold days of winter came.

What a silly beaver, we would say. He knew winter was coming. He was busy. But why didn’t he prepare?

Winter comes to us all. Life begins to slow down, and takes on a bit of a chill. The joints don’t move like they used to. The hair, if it stays, changes to a gray color. Yes, winter is always at the end of autumn, after the summer days are just a memory. Winter reminds us that we are mortal. Life as we know it is just the beginning of an eternal journey, and the “death of winter” is the stepping from this life on earth to life in eternity. Life doesn’t end; it just changes requirements.

Food piles are where we lay up supplies for the coming winter. Jesus said it like this in Matthew 6:19-21:

“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. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Are we building our “food piles,” the supplies to see us through the upcoming winter, with items of junk?

Looking for something good to place on the pile, some choice cottonwood perhaps? Try some of Colossians 3:12-17:

Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

It starts with being made new in Christ (verse 10). It adds to that living a life of holiness, humbleness, meekness, patience, forgiveness, and love. Don’t face the upcoming winter without being prepared, wasting precious time adding items to the food pile that will never see you through the winter.

Excerpted from Bibles, Beavers, and Big Timber, Bradley Antill author, see this and more at www.onatreeforestry.com