The ways of God to reach and teach us are many. Some lessons are easier than others – some are not. Because of a little “deferred” household maintenance we ended up with squirrels in our attic. To resolve that problem we called a critter removal service but, prior to their arrival, as I was sitting in my living room reading, I heard a great sound such as air rushing from a punctured tire. “Uh-oh,” I said, “that was clearly the sound of refrigerant leaving its hose in the attic.”

By no coincidence at all, the air conditioning repair man was due at the house to install a needed part. No, he said, “that hose is very thick, I don’t believe a squirrel could penetrate it.” A few days following this statement we had 82-degree weather and I desperately needed air conditioning for health reasons. The upstairs unit was still missing a part, but the downstairs unit should work – although it did not. Oh dear.

The squirrel removal man arrived and, climbing up onto the roof, showed us the rotted fascia board that dear mother squirrel had worked so diligently to remove to make her lovely indoor nest. He removed that board and installed a very clever one-way exit for the squirrels. We were not sure how many critters were up there, but my husband Neil had spotted two tails, so we went with that number. Momma squirrel popped out quickly and then spent the next hour or so hovering over the exit.

From the yard I could see the second squirrel in the exit cage but not leaving. The smaller squirrel was undecided as to leave his home or stay put, but because mom and obviously his nourishment were outside he decided to take his chances on the bigger, newer environment that was now in front of him.

I imagine after being in the dark of the attic it was quite startling to suddenly be confronted with bright sunlight, the massive blue sky overhead and our huge green magnolia, but after some coaxing by his mother he stepped into the fearful freedom of the great outdoors.

For a while he remained on the roof with not much thought of leaving, although mother squirrel was trying to get him to follow her off by way of balancing on the electrical wires leading to the tree – he would not go. Because she is so smart and has been around me enough to know I am safe, I took the clothesline pole and laid it up against the shortest part of the roof and told her to come down that way. She tried it first and then coaxed her baby into following her down. He did it perfectly and was almost as big as his mother.

For the next day or so he would return to the roof and huddle under the air conditioning unit, which was as close to his original home as he could get. We later saw him negotiating the fence and inspecting the garden while sniffing every plant. I am happy he is out of my house and thrilled that there are no new noises in the attic.

I will be even more thrilled when the nice man who put in the one-way exit on the roof returns to remove the device and repair the fascia. All will be solid with the house again, and hopefully the species that are to live in the trees and on the ground will stay where they belong (you may recall my Christmas mouse story).

But of course, that does not fix my air conditioning problem. We have a small air conditioner in our guest quarters that we were planning to use upstairs, but that unit is certainly not sufficient to cool the house. So, I made a quick trip to the hardware store at 5:30 (it closed at 6) to purchase another unit.

Now just think about how much this small amount of delayed house maintenance has cost. We hired a professional critter removal service and then purchased an extra air conditioner. I am fairly certain we will need to have the house painters come back and touch up the fascia board, to say nothing about the air-conditioning repair.

All in all, it was a lesson expensively learned, but aren’t those the lessons that stick in our memories the best? Those lessons that cost us something – either by loss of money, loss of friendship, love or otherwise – those are the lessons we usually do not repeat.

Although troubles may assail us (be they of our own neglect or otherwise), our God is gracious and uses every lesson in life to teach us something – we would be wise to listen and take note!