Our family is blessed to live in the country. We live on the edge of a working farm with fields in front of us and the woods behind us. It’s a beautiful location, and we are constantly reminded of God’s glory revealed to us through creation. On many occasions, we get to see amazing sunsets or witness impressive storms. We are privileged to view the changing of the seasons through the crops that have been planted or the trees changing colors. It truly is a remarkable place, and we are thankful to call it our home.
Though we love our home and are grateful to live there, residing in that location does occasionally have its challenges. One of them that comes to mind is animals.
Recently, there has been a renegade group of critters that have teamed up to wreak havoc on our quaint little abode. These masked bandits have entered into our domain, rummaging through our refuse, tearing up our plants, and generally just leaving a big, ol’ mess. If you haven’t guessed, we’ve been visited by raccoons.
This happens occasionally. An animal or family of animals decides that they are no longer happy with everything that has been provided in the wild…the berries, the vegetation, the fish, the snails, etc., and they decide to expand upon their diet…looking for leftover pizza scraps or trying to eat whatever morsels of Clem’s BBQ might be left in the packaging. So, they come, and they see what they can find in the quiet of the night, tearing open bags and generally ransacking the place.
I don’t blame them. I’d rather eat pizza and Clem’s than some snail I find in the woods. However, even though I don’t blame them, the arrangement of the raccoons tearing up everything is less than ideal. So, it becomes a problem that must be addressed.
Now, just so we’re clear…we live in the country, but we don’t live there by ourselves. We are a literal stones throw away from my in-laws. I could even hit their place shutting my eyes and throwing with my left hand. They’re that close. (That’s a blessing as well…and I’m not just saying that because they will likely read this devotional.) So, when problems arise at the property, it’s not just a problem for me, Christa & Silas. It’s a problem for the whole Shrum Compound (we live on their property so they get the honors of the name). We all have to figure out what to do. We have to come together to deal with the situation. Unite to tackle the problem.
Enter the live trap.
My father-in-law purchased a live trap to catch the raccoons, and up to this point it has worked well. But, it isn’t particular. Any old thing that walks in there to eat the goodies should get caught. There’s no scanning device, no high-tech means of guaranteeing that we only get raccoons. If you enter the trap, you get caught.
Enter a possum.
This morning as I left to go to work, I checked the trap and was a bit surprised to see a possum. Apparently, possums like marshmallows and food scraps too. This one decided to check them out and was caught. That, in and of itself, wasn’t that surprising.
This morning as I left to go to work, I checked the trap and was a bit surprised to see a possum. Apparently, possums like marshmallows and food scraps too. This one decided to check them out and was caught. That, in and of itself, wasn’t that surprising.
The surprising part? The door to the trap was open…and the possum was still in the thing.
I shrugged, figuring my father-in-law had recently left and decided to let him out. I hopped in the car and headed towards work, but on the way I called up my father-in-law and asked, “What’s the deal with the possum?” He responded, “That thing’s still in there?” “Yep,” I assured him. He answered, “Well, I decided to let him go so I opened the door. I figured he’d be gone by now.”
It had been over three hours! Yet, the possum remained. “Trapped” in a cage with an open door to freedom. For all I know, he might still be in there. Hopefully, he’s made his way out. If not, we’ll help him out when we get home.
(Now, I recognize that the possum might have teamed up with the raccoons, and he might be in on the ransacking. If so, letting him loose might have been a poor choice. Regardless, the possum was granted his freedom, and we will deal with the results of that decision…good or bad.)
I keep picturing that possum in that cage.
It didn’t seem upset. It didn’t seem bothered. It wasn’t acting agitated or hissing or showing signs of anger. It was just kind of walking back and forth, likely hoping to get out. I imagine that it was wanting to head back to the woods and take a nap. Possums don’t really like being awake during the day. Maybe the daylight was clouding its thoughts.
But I keep picturing that possum.
CAN HE NOT SEE THE OPEN DOOR?
Why not run into the freedom that you had been given?
What’s your problem, possum?
You know we do the same thing.
God has granted us freedom. Undeserved. We can even recognize that we’re the ones who have gone off the rails, who have left that which God has given us and have sought to fill our appetites with other things. We aren’t just some innocent bystander who accidentally walked into a trap. We’re guiltier than the raccoons (and possibly the possum). We deserve to be trapped. We do not deserve mercy, or grace, or love, or freedom. We don’t. We deserve to be caught. It is the natural consequence of our actions.
And yet…God has set us free.
God has opened the door. He has released us from our captivity. He has unloosed our chains. He has shown us the path, lit the way, and has even promised to walk with us.
Still, we, like the possum, continue to walk back and forth in our cage, assuming we’re trapped, we’re caught, we’re stuck. “I can’t help it! This is just the way that I’m made. Besides…I like these marshmallows and food scraps at the bottom of this cage.”
Meanwhile the door to freedom is swinging wide open.
In the Gospel of Luke, we find what is often called the Parable of the Prodigal Son. It’s an awesome story, and there are tons of lessons/insights/applications that can be gleaned from that passage. If you haven’t read it lately, check it out in Luke 15:11-31. The story goes that a father has two sons. The younger son asks for his share of the estate…so that he might know freedom. The father grants his request, and according to verse 13,
“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.”
Apparently, this younger son had felt restricted in the confines of his home. He was tired of the rules, the regulations, the parameters of living within his father’s home. He set out to live it up.
I imagine it went well for a while. He enjoyed the marshmallows, the leftover Clem’s, the food scraps that had been set out for him.
But then, things got bad. A famine came, he was out of money, and he was trapped. Stuck in a cage, looking at the pods that the pigs ate, wishing that he could eat them.
Verse 17 continues, “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father.” (Luke 15:17-20)
When he came to his senses, he knew where to find freedom. When he came to his senses, he knew that the door had been opened, that the cage had been unlocked, that he could actually live a life that had meaning, had purpose, that offered real food. When he came to his senses, he knew that he needed to look to his father.
Friends, we too, need to look to our Father. We need to look to God and find the freedom that we often seek in other places. We need to recognize that God has opened the door to this freedom through the gift of his Son, Jesus Christ, and that we are accepted into the family of God, even though we are deserving of our guilt.
And then, when we’ve been set free, let’s not stay in the trap. What good is freedom if we never leave the cage? What good is a life in Christ if we are still clinging to the patterns of this world? What good is victory over sin if we keep chasing after the sin time and time and time again, licking the bottom of the cage, hoping for just one more taste of a stale marshmallow instead of enjoying the life that God has promised?
Friends, don’t stay in the trap. Don’t keep chasing after this world and the temporary pleasures that it has to offer. Let’s come to our senses and seek after God. Let’s walk through the door that has been opened for us, and let’s never turn back.
I keep thinking about that possum. I pray that I’m not like him.
~ Pastor Chris
