Hiking, Wildlife, MacDonald, Pussy Cat

Interesting hike today but disappointed that I didn't see more wildlife.  Not sure it counts as wildlife, but click HERE if you want to see a duck on a rock.  I was surprised that the trees were already changing. Click HERE.  As I finished walking the only other wildlife was a flittering butterfly. Click HERE.  The trails where I hiked are only 5 miles from our house, which got me to thinking.

We live adjacent to a community park with a 2 mile walking path, which we seldom use.  Gettysburg is a short drive from our house, but we can count on one hand the times that we visited the battlefields. So often we drive or fly mega miles, only to do the same things that we could have done much closer to home.  Sometimes it seems we miss things that are right under our nose. 

Anyway, I revisited some of my library books today.  Question.  Did you ever hear this rhyme?

Pussycat, pussycat,
Where have you been?

I've been up to London
To visit the Queen.
 
Pussycat, pussycat,
What did you there?
 
I frightened a little mouse
Under her chair.

 

I believe it was in "The Life God Blesses" that Gordon MacDonald mentions this rhyme and compares it to "missing the wonder of knowing God". The idea is that the cat went to visit the queen, but completely missed the simple joy of being in her presence - because the cat was distracted by the mouse. This rhyme often replays in my brain at the end of a busy week, since I need reminded that as a believer in Christ, I am a child of the King and part of a bigger purpose than what is in front of me. 

At the end of my journey on this earth I really don't want to look back and see that I was so distracted that I missed simply being in the presence of the King.  Put another way, the rhyme reminds me to refocus on what is eternally important.

Click HERE to see the other GM books that found a home in my library.