Night Visitors

Up here in the beautiful north Georgia mountains I have God moments everyday – several times a day, in fact. The Nacoochee Valley is turning into a patchwork quilt that, like I predicted, Yonah –our signature mountain – would soon pull up around her before winter. The leaves are slower to turn this year, the locals say, because we had a rainy summer and, so far, a mild autumn. But slow is good. Slow. Is. Good.

Almost every afternoon, we sit out on our back deck and watch bird life and forest critters scamper and fly through the ever-changing foliage. A couple of days ago, as a magnanimous gesture, we filled a ceramic bird feeder with seeds and hung it over the deck railing that is at least 30-feet above the ground – where only birds could reach it. It was sort of an offering of thanks to those that grace us with their presence almost every day.

Then we just waited.

For a whole afternoon, no one came to visit. Not one bird. A couple of squirrels comically tried to figure out how to trapeze themselves out to the dangling feeder, but for the most part they came away empty-pawed.

The next morning, however, the seeds in the feeder were gone. The thing was completely cleaned out! Okay, we thought, maybe we just missed the feeding time. We filled the feeder again.

Later that day, just after sundown, I heard a grand commotion on the deck. Thinking that I would catch a squirrel or two in another amusing acrobatic move, I flipped on the deck light. There, a couple of feet away, were THREE HUGE RACCOONS. One of them, who had apparently been named the “look out”, was on his hind legs waving at me. I guess his job was to create a distraction while the other two sort of daisy-chained themselves – one reaching for the feeder while the other was holding on for dear life to the railing – 30 feet up from the ground. Rodent teamwork at its best.

Not knowing the attack tendencies of raccoons, I backed up and watched from behind the sliding glass door. The sentry, whose distraction had worked on me, turned to his fellow scavengers. And then – all three let out a high-pitched squeal just before they attacked each other and disappeared over the railing – 30 feet up – taking the bird feeder with them. Rodent kamikazes.

So much for the magnanimous spirit.

Ephesians 4:32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. (NASB)