an encounter with God...and a raccoon

Another morning. I love mornings. Well, as long as I'm alone, I love mornings. I love the quiet, my coffee and my time with my God. I usually take my fufu flavored coffee outside to my front porch or to my desk in front of the window and study the Word with the perspective of the trees, the birds and the squirrels (of whom I am not really fond of).

But today it's different. God has brought me to the back yard for our time together...for a word picture...

with a raccoon...

I saw the morning as usual awakening in front of our bedroom window just after the sunrise. I greeted my Lord with "Good Morning!" and continued to thank Him for His many blessings. It's a great time for me with Jesus. We have had some great conversations there. This morning I prayed for my friend. A friend that I know is hurting. I asked for discernment and wisdom to know how God would have me lead her into a closer place with Him. I admitted to Him that I knew He has taken me into a place that will need His total control.....

for I have not the wisdom or the power to get her to where God is obviously leading her.

So here I sit this morning...not at my desk, and not with my study material but on my hubby's new laptop watching the 3rd of 3 Masked Bandits I've managed to corral with a can of cat food and a cage. As I watch, God is showing me a picture of the place my friend is in...

Caged.

This little guy is fighting to get out...
He has more acrobatic moves than you would imagine..
He is fighting for his freedom with every ounce of energy he has...

Sometimes he distracts himself with the empty cat food can, or he sees how far he can stretch his little foot (is it a paw?) outside the cage to scratch on the deck floor; but most of the time he is desperately trying to get out of that cage. He knows there is a cool dark place just out of his reach and after all it is morning and it is time that he go to sleep. I don't know if a baby raccoon would have family loyalty, but yesterday morning he had a sibling and before that a mom that are both now gone from his world. Now he is stuck in the cage.

His life sucks right now.

But here's what the little guy doesn't know....someone is on the way. Someone who actually cares about his life, cares about whether he is old enough to fend for himself or if he should be nursed at the wildlife rescue place. Someone who is willing to take the time to put him in the truck and drive him to the river where he will be in the natural habitat of a raccoon. The raccoon and his family were never intended to live under a deck in suburbia and eat the bird's seed out of their feeders! (It could be that birds weren't intended to eat out of feeders either, but that's a different post) And while I would never begin to guess what God's initial intention for the little varmint was, I don't imagine it was to be under the deck feasting on seed.

So, as I watch him struggle, I know that this afternoon he will be in raccoon paradise....the mud, the tall grass the little things that raccoons like to eat... whatever that would be. Maybe he will even catch up with his mom and brother. So I don't feel bad that he is so unhappy right now.

As for my friend (and I'm pretty sure you will read this today or tomorrow)...

Someone is on the way.

It's pretty clear to me that you feel trapped in the circumstances of life...both past and present. Life has put you in this cage and filled you with the lie that there is no way out...

Someone is on the way...

He is here.

He has his hands on the cage door and He is about to release you into the land He intended you to live in all your life.


I told you it will be hard. The raccoon is fighting hard against the very thing that will set him free! But we will walk through this with you and you will one day have a clear picture of how wide and how long, how deep and how high the love of God truly is.

The animal control people should be here soon.

God is already here....watch what happens.