In his book, Detours: Sometimes Rough Roads Lead to Right Places, Clark Cothern tells of a Christmas when his family encountered an unexpected house guest. A squirrel had fallen down their chimney into the wood burner stove in the basement of their Michigan home. Cothern writes:

I thought if it knew we were there to help, I could just reach in and gently lift it out. Nothing doing. As I reached in…it began scratching about like a squirrel overdosed on espresso.

We finally managed to construct a cardboard box “cage” complete with a large hole cut into one side, into which the squirrel waltzed when we placed the box against the wood burner’s door. We let it out into the safety of our backyard.

Later, I thought, Isn’t it funny how, before its redemption, our little visitor had frantically tried to bash its way out of its dark prison? It seemed that the harder it struggled in its own strength to get free, the more pain it caused itself.

In the end, he simply had to wait patiently until one who was much bigger—one who could peer into his world—could carry him safely to that larger world where he really belonged.

That is what we need the Lord to do for us.