“For every beast of the forest is Mine, The cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird of the mountains, And everything that moves in the field is Mine”
(Psalm 50:10-11).

When I was a little girl I loved watching squirrels gather acorns as they prepared for winter. My dad said you could tell what kind of winter it was going to be by watching the squirrels. If a lot of acorns were on the ground and the squirrels got really fat, we were in for a long, hard winter.

Watching squirrels gather acorns, and seeing a flock of geese fly overhead in perfect v-formation affirmed my belief in God. I always believed in God, but the activity of God’s creatures made me know beyond all doubt that He exists. How else would the animals know what to do at the right time? Squirrels gather acorns. Geese fly south. Bears hibernate. Woodchucks dig burrows. Turtles crawl underneath the mud. How do they know when to do this? God tells them. God watches over His creatures and provides for them, just as he watches over us and provides for us.

One day as I was remembering this childhood experience it gave me an idea for a children’s picture book. So I wrote a rhyming text about animals preparing for winter and prepared a book proposal. I tried for many years to get it published, with no open doors. Several years ago I sent it to Clubhouse Jr. magazine, and they published the story in a fall issue. It wasn’t the hard cover picture book I had envisioned, but they added adorable pictures and placed it on a colorful two-page spread. It was the perfect audience and format for this story. And instead of reaching a couple thousand readers with this nature lesson about our Creator, it reached over 50,000.

When God gives you something to share with others, ask Him to show you how, when, and where to share it. It might be a book, a magazine article, or a blog. It might mean sharing your story with a small group of Sunday school children. And whether your words reach a few or many, God will use them for His purpose.

And by the way—are you getting ready for winter? The animals know it’s time.

Crystal