"A BIG lesson from a lil' critter"

As you know, I thrive on overanalyzing everything. Therefore, whenever I am around and hear or see something I try to find some of “God” in all things. I mean, after all, He is the Creator of all things and He is the Omniscient, Omnipresent Holy One. So shouldn’t we take the things of this world and use them to talk about things of God?
It should come as no surprise that this story will be another one of those “God moments!”

I accepted an invitation to dinner at a friend’s house. The story that was shared that night at dinner was that while out in the garage a noise was heard. When my friend looked around, two little beady eyes were staring straight in his face. (I imagine this as two beasts facing each other eye ball to eye ball!) My friend warned the lil critter, what he was about to do. He issued a warning that went something like this: “Muskrat (Ummm we’ll talk about my friend’s lack of animal identification knowledge later), we can do this the easy way (STOMPS to attempt to make the animal flinch and flee) or the hard way (as he grabs an axe handle…just the handle). In his own words, “He gave it space to repent and it repented not.” So… when the “muskrat” (later correctly identified by mua as an opossum!), chose not to flee for his life--my friend grabbed an empty garbage can in one hand, armed w/the axe handle in the other—and whacked the rodent into the can. Tada! Problem solved. He placed the can outside of the garage and now he had earned bragging rights to the story and a “critter in the can” to prove its validity. Hence, this became the beginning of our dinner conversation.

After dinner, we went out to look at the “critter in the can” and I properly identified it as an opossum. (Did I mention that I was the one to do this already? LOL) To my surprise, it was just laying there. It wasn’t playing dead…it just stared up at us. It didn’t even try to escape…no clawing its way out of the pit that it was put in. It just laid there waiting to be freed by the one who put him there. The next day, the family decided it was time to let the opossum free. When they did so, the opossum (not a very smart animal I have realized) stood there. Now, I don’t know about you, but I would think it would run like the wind! Not so! It stood there—looked at its captor and then finally sauntered away—almost like it was asking, “Really? I should go?” Eventually it took off and went on its way. The next day, I saw an opossum dead at the end of our street. Wonder if it was the same opossum? Funny, it didn’t want to be freed…then once it was it didn’t know what to do or where to go.

So, I saw the dead opossum the next day and then began to seriously ponder the spiritual application. I mean why else would I have to see a dead opossum the very next day if it wasn’t meant for me to think more about? I have already described mostly what I had thought but isn’t this animal a lot like us? Creatures that don’t live in the water (Opossums….muskrats live near or in it) find themselves in trouble---When we as Christian’s stay away from the Word (Living Water)—we too find ourselves scrambling around making noise and being up to no good. Along comes our way to escape and we stare it right in the face—like we dare it! As if we are actually strong or smart enough to overcome our temptations and weaknesses on our own by looking directly in the face of them eye to eye. Suddenly, we become trapped and are laying there helpless until we can be set free. We become comfortable “critters in the can” and some of us lay around almost dead and helpless waiting to be rescued while others try to scratch and claw our ways out of the pit.

I googled information about this rodent and found that opposums are usually nomadic, staying in one area as long as food and water are easily available. Though they will temporarily occupy abandoned burrows, they do not dig or put much effort into building their own. They favor dark, secure areas, below ground or above. Interesting that they prefer darkness and the easy way to survive...without any real effort--so unlike the Christian life where we should avoid darkness and understand that our walk will be a difficult yet an eternally rewarding one.

Again parrellelling the opossum, when Our Savior frees us from the bondage we chose to get involved in, we stare blankly as if we don’t want to be freed. We pause. Stare blankly. And ask, “Really, I should go?” Some of us do flee from the things that hold us captive. Some of us return to them because it’s a familiar place for us to stay. Others try to run and don’t look the right direction and end up like the opossum at the end of my street.

So as I started to conclude this I began to wonder why not a "muskrat?" So, Miss Overanalyzer that I am, I googled them up too. Guess what their nickname is? "Water rats" because they dwell in the water. I think we could learn a thing or two here as well.

Huh? Who knew I could learn so much from rodents? Oh wait—God knew! Amen?