This morning I looked out my kitchen window and saw what I first thought was a cat walking across the yard toward the house. I quickly realized that this was no cat; it was an opossum.
It is not that unusual to see a possum in our small town. However, it is unusual to see one alive! They are more often spotted dead on the road.
Fascinated by this rare sighting, I rushed out of the house to confront the trespasser. Startled, she turned and ambled back in the other direction. I know it was a “she” because she had several babies clinging to her back. She thought about “playing possum”, doing a couple of rolls onto her back. However, she kept moving, perhaps thinking that playing dead was too great a chance to take with this huge, frightening creature so close to her and her babies.
She soon made it to safety underneath our equipment shed. My adventure was over.
I suppose she will move on soon, probably under the cover of darkness. But I couldn’t help but wonder about her final destination. Will she, like so many of her kind, end up as roadkill?
And I was reminded of the ultimate destiny of all mankind—to stand before God and give account for our lives (Hebrews 9:27-28).
May we be mindful of our final destiny as we live each day.
