Rescue

Photo by Sean Ewart

“I found a raccoon crossing the road as I drove home from a Morristown Central School Board of Education meeting. I noticed the raccoon had his head caught in a peanut butter jar and, naturally, stopped to take a picture.

But then I realized that, if I didn't do anything, the raccoon was sure to meet an untimely death. At least without the jar on its head, the creature could see the next car coming at it down the road. So, as the raccoon ran around, bumping into telephone poles and trees, I decided to attempt to corral him in the Morristown Fire Department's parking lot until I could get someone to help me.

I called 911 and had an incredibly surreal conversation with the dispatcher. "This is not an emergency," I prefaced my conversation with her. I told her I had an "adorable" problem. She gave me the phone number for an animal control person who happened to be about 30 miles away. I called, but had dialed the wrong number, and then my phone battery died. At this point I was in the Fire Station parking lot, alone, with a Raccoon trapped in a peanut butter jar running around me, banging into the pavement, my legs, the flower bins, my legs, and the garage.

I decided to continue keeping the raccoon in the parking lot while I thought about my next move. I considered walking away and letting nature do it's worst, but that just felt unsatisfactory.

In the process of my raccoon wrangling, we worked our way around the rather large Fire Station. The raccoon, who had been running flat out for most of the ordeal (with me panting to keep up with it), eventually ran into a shovel that was leaning against the wall of the Fire Station. The shovel fell over, with a loud noise, which alerted me to its presence.

I grabbed the shovel and spent the next 15 minutes attempting to pin the plastic peanut butter jar to the ground so the raccoon could pull himself out. After about 10 tries (to any onlooker, I am sure I looked like I was attempting to sever the head of the raccoon), I managed to pin the jar to the ground. The raccoon twisted around, climbed up on the shovel, and finally pulled its head out. It just stood there panting and then, after catching its breath, waddled away.

I'm basically Superman.”

My son, Sean, wrote this account of his encounter with a raccoon a few years ago, when he was working as a journalist in the North Country.  It is gratifying for me to know that he has carried his childhood compassion into adulthood.  

Sean’s encounter with the raccoon reminds me so much of how God stopped what he was doing to rescue us. Confused, blind, starving creatures; left to the mercies of nature, we could never have freed ourselves - let alone anyone else!

 

It just so happens that I shared this story with a friend, yesterday.  I had no intention of using it as my devotional this week, but it lead us to pray for our children before we parted ways.

This morning, when I opened the blinds to the backyard, wouldn’t you know I was greeted by two young raccoons - right there at the window!  

It didn’t feel like a coincidence to me.

But this is what the LORD says: "Yes, captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce; I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save.  Isaiah 49:25  (NIV)

Beverly