Hi folks, This is Eugene and I've got a great story to share with you.

My granddaughter, Ciara (pronounced "See-air-a"), when she was five years old, one day I was showing her some old family pictures of when I was a child. We came across a picture of me when I had once rescued a baby groundhog that our old farm cat had drug up.

She ask me what was that animal and what happen to it. I told her it was a ground hog and I fed it on a bottle and it lived for quite a spell and was like a pet for me. She then looks at me and says: “Papaw, I want a baby groundhog”.

I explained to her that the chances of finding one were very rare and we could perhaps get her something else to pet. But again she looks at me and replies: “Well, Papaw, we can ask Jesus to get me one”.

I tried to explain that Jesus was not likely to be concerned if we got a baby groundhog or not and we should only ask Him for things that we truly need. Again she looks at me and says: “But, Papaw, I really need a baby groundhog so I’m going to ask.”

So after that, I got her with me on the internet and we used one of them there search enginea and sure enough we found a place where you can buy hand-feed baby groundhogs along with other animals like squirrels, raccoons and the likes. But the cost was $300 for the baby and $150 for airfare to get it delivered and $35 for a vet to give it a clean bill of health. So, after I explained the cost and how we would just have to find something else to raise and pet she seemingly understood and we went on to color and watch her TV shows.

Four weeks had soon come and gone by and I wanted to be a hero for Ciara, so I was going out everyday looking for an orphaned bird, squirrel or just about anything that would make her have the experience what I had as a child of nursing a young animal and raisin' it up.

Then, one morning, out of the blue, my phone rang and it was a local doughnut shopworker who knew that I was prone to helping with all kinds of animals and she said, "You need to come down here there is a homeless man here with two little animals - one in each hand and they look like moles or rats." So, I drove down to the shop and there he was - a homeless man named Robert - holding a five gallon bucket with two very cold and very weak baby groundhogs in it!

I explained to him they needed milk and to get warm right away or they would die. After a little more coaxing he decided to let me have them. A few hours later and I had them fed and warm and it looked as if they were going to be just fine. Then, all at once, it hit me and I recalled Ciara’s words of 4 weeks before: “I’ll ask Jesus for a baby groundhog” and “ I need a baby groundhog”. So, I called over to her house and said: “Ciara, Jesus done sent your baby groundhog over here and he sent me one too”. We have since named the two groundhogs, “Faith” and “Hope”. Ciara kept “Faith” and we have adopted out “Hope” to someone else.

Jesus said in Matthew 18:3, "Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."

So, as Ciara has done with the two groundhogs, she kept “Faith” and passed “Hope” along to someone else, and she has humbled and renew her Papaw's understanding of what it means to have that simple child like faith. Ain't that a great story?

God Bless and keep you all, Eugene.

“Faith” in October 2008
Click here to enlarge this picture

Ciara and her groundhog named “Faith”

Ciara's little groundhog named “Faith”

Ciara loves her little groundhog named “Faith”

Ciara and “Faith” Christmas 2007