Have you ever seen the way out of a tough situation only to remain firmly in it?
Over the last few days, we have had an unwanted guest who seemed perfectly happy to remain in a tough situation. Let me explain.
Thursday is garbage day, nothing groundbreaking there. Earlier in the evening, my husband had brought the garbage can up to the garage, but forgot to bring it in. Bedtime comes and we remember. He said, “Just wait until morning” but I said, “No, I just needed to open the door and bring it in.” No problem, or I thought.
I opened the garage door and walked up to the garbage can and at that exact moment, a rat ran past the front of the house right across my feet. Of course, I was extremely startled. Though I think I may have scared it more than it scared me. I was like oh, crud. Please tell me it ran across the front of the house and not into the garage.
We would have to wait and see.
Friday night, I went out to the garage turned on the light and sure enough a brown blur ran across the floor straight for the garage door. I quickly pressed the door opener so it could just run straight out. Whew, that was fortunate, so I thought. Saturday night, same thing. Turned on the light, brown blur ran straight for the door and opened the door. Crisis averted???
Honestly, I could not see the end of the garage, so I had no idea if it took advantage of the exit or just hid underneath the car.
Sunday evening rolled around and while we were relaxing my husband stopped and asked, “Do you hear that”? We get up and walk near the door to the garage and sure as shoot we can hear scratching on the other side. What the FLIP! We bang on the door and carefully open it. The little pest had started tearing apart the weather stripping around the door. Oh, heck no is that going to happen, so we headed to Home Depot to buy a trap, a live trap, of course, as Michael does not have the heart to kill anything. So, we get the live trap home and set it up with a lovely cracker loaded with peanut butter. Thinking there is no way he will turn down a lovely peanut butter-covered cracker, now we can sleep.
Monday morning. Trap empty, snack completely untouched. What? This critter has been in the garage for 3 days where there is no food or water, he must be hungry.
Now I am on a mission. I want to know where this critter is hanging out. I begin cleaning out the garage. I sorted through everything with no sign of him. Then go to the gardening cabinet. I open the door and remove a bucket that houses our bag of potting soil. As I set the bucket down, I just wondered, so I touched the top of the bag. Out flies our unwanted guest and he flies under the car toward the open garage door. Once again, I just knew he must have run out the door. It was wide open and could not have been a more obvious invitation to escape. I promptly put a lid on the bucket and put it away. I went into the house and told my husband I had found where “Peanut” was sleeping, and he may or may not have once again exited the garage. Michael laughed. He was surprised but not surprised that I had given the rat a name. lol
As I was preparing to close things up, the Holy Spirit whispered to me, you better take that lid off the potting soil just in case. Three times the door has been open and each time he has declined to use it.
Now, at least I know where he sleeps. My plan was in the morning if the trap was still empty, I will open the cabinet very carefully and place the lid on the bucket, carry the bucket out to the open desert down the street and open the lid. Fingers crossed and prayers said.
Morning comes and we go out and do just that. As I lifted the bucket, I shook it just to see if I could feel anything move inside. Did not feel anything but was not about to take any chances. We walked into the desert and opened the lid. Immediately Peanut flew out of the opening and ran straight out into the open desert.
I had never felt so much relief that, one, we no longer had an unwanted guest living in our garage, and two, we did not have to kill him to remedy the situation.
This whole ordeal got me thinking….
How often do we find ourselves trapped by fear in situations we know are not good for us, and are unable, or unwilling, to walk or run through the wide-open door God has provided?
You see, fear rarely lasts forever. Fear will shift to complacency when we begin to accept our situation. We become unaware that the situation will eventually lead to our demise. Whether physically or spiritually.
Oh, but for the love of our God. He cares for us so much that he will patiently wait for us to walk out that open door. Sometimes he waits for us to hunker down in our “bucket” and then puts on the lid and moves us where he needs us to be and not until the lid is removed, do we realize he has once again saved our life.
