Lee Duigon

From August 21, 2014

Hi! Mr. Nature here, this time with a startling encounter.

Now I know some of you who live in normal parts of the country are going to wonder why I’m making such a big deal of this. Well, this is the central Jersey suburbs. Democrats rule here, and the natural world is always in their crosshairs. We here don’t expect to see much wildlife.

So there I was, outside in my chair, enjoying a last pipe before bedtime, when I heard a rustling of the leaves in a nearby tree. It sounded like squirrels, but they’re not up so late. Could it be a possum?

Then I heard the sound of claws on bark, and down the tree-trunk, face-first (a cat would climb down tail-first), shinnied a great big raccoon. He climbed up the adjacent tree, whose branches overhang my chair. I know it’s silly to be afraid of a raccoon, but I kept thinking “rabies, maybe?”, so I got up and moved back a few steps.

The raccoon tight-roped out on a branch and looked me in the eye. He messed around in that tree for several minutes before climbing back down. He paused to treat me to another staring contest, then turned and ambled off into the night.

Yeah, OK, sure, it’s not a leopard or something. But it’s been over 30 years since I’ve seen a raccoon in this neighborhood, so I was a bit excited. (I’d just watched some X Files, but I’m sure that had no influence on my state of mind.) Again I thought of the world of Bell Mountain, where long-gone animals turn up as a sign from God.

We could use a sign, these days. But then Jesus Christ Himself is our sign, and God will not detract from His Son. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. I Corinthians 1:22-24

There’s nothing a raccoon can tell us that the Holy Spirit hasn’t already tried to tell us.