“I’m in a dilemma.” Those were my first words when I called my neighbor Melinda last Wednesday morning a little after 8.
She asked me what was the dilemma. I said I have a raccoon caught in the trap and I don’t know what to do with it.
For months I had been wanting to catch the “night critter” that was digging up my paths.
Recently my friend Ron had brought a trap out for me to catch this night-digging intruder.
Since I want to keep the weeds out and have a nice walking area between my flower beds, I keep landscaping fabric and hay on top of my paths.
Well, every few nights some animal would root up the hay and ruin my nice hay-covered path.
I would have to smooth out the hay again which was taking up a lot of time and energy I could be using elsewhere.
Trying to figure out what was messing up my paths, I read that raccoons will “roll up” a lawn while searching for grubs and other larval insects.
Now that I had actually caught the culprit, or at least one of them, what do I do with it! Anyway, I couldn’t destroy the little face looking up at me from inside the trap.
So Melinda said I could let it out in their woods. I said, “I don’t know how to get the trap open.”
She told me they had a trap and she thought she could figure it out from her experience.
So she and Derrick, her little four-year old grandson, came up and she showed me how to open the trap.
So I put the trap in my car and followed them down to her place. And with my newly-acquired skill of knowing how to open the trap, I let the raccoon go at the edge of her woods. It immediately ran up a tree.
The funny thing I had not taken time to actually put a bait in the trap, but the young raccoon walked into the trap and caught itself.
Sometimes I realize I too am trapped by my own desires into making unwise decisions, but I know a caring God who I can call on to open the door of the trap and help me “climb a tree” to victory over temptation and to a new way of freedom in Jesus.
“No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it.” ( I Corinthians 10:13 MSG)
Love in Jesus,
God’s “raccoon-trapping” servant,
Liz Ray
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