While others may balk at their loss of privacy because of inspectors who invade their space, I’ve become quite comfortable with it.  In fact, my daily inspector is not even a human being.  It is a squirrel.  That’s right…the brown, fuzzy rodent who jumps from branch to branch, tree to tree and rooftop to attic.  Each morning as I sit in my back yard, The Inspector comes to complain about everything.  Rude and pushy, he chirps and squawks at every change I make in the garden.  On the days I trim major portions from his favorite jumping trees, I am scolded severely.

For several years, I thought this was my imagination until my sister came to spend a few weeks with me.  Several mornings she, too, wandered onto the patio to have a quiet time with the Lord.  ”There is a squirrel in your yard that is terribly rude and bossy,” she reported to me after a few days.  Because her family has raised squirrels and kept them as pets, she is familiar with their attitudes and personalities.  ”I’ve seen bossy and rude squirrels before but never one that tried to push me into submission.”

“Oh, yeah,” I told her.  ”He comes every morning to inspect me and tell me how to run things around the yard.”

This morning I was pondering a disturbing dream that woke me up. As I sat quietly, minding my own business, The Inspector approached.  His rotten attitude had not improved.  He sat staring at me to be sure that I was paying attention.  Then he began his complaints.  For about five minutes, he ranted in his familiar cherps, squeaks and squawks.

Suddenly, I recognized those sounds.  That squirrel sounded amazingly like me.  Shocked, they were exactly like the prayers of complaint that