THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS AS THEY APPEAR: AN ANTEATERS TALE

EEK...A MOUSE!

"Today, Max brought a dead mouse to school in his backpack." That was the first line, of the first note ever, from my grandson Max's teacher. It seems that our little kindergarten genius caused quite a stir that day at school with his little dead friend. My son (Max's dad), said he knew something was up when Max came home that afternoon without his book bag (which the teacher later said she had thrown away!)

LOOK WHAT I FOUND!

You see, that morning before leaving for school, Max had come running into the house to tell everyone, "I found an Anteater! I found an Anteater!" Which of course, his dad began to explain would be impossible since Anteaters don't live in Florida. They are originally from Africa and....blah, blah, blah... Typical dad, teaching his son, right? Well, Max was insistent, but gave it up finally when he saw he couldn't convince anyone. So he did the next best thing. He loaded up the dead "Anteater" in his backpack and headed off for school. Guess what? When he arrived he had no trouble getting everyone's attention, when he let it be known to the entire kindergarten class that he had a surprise in his backpack. A real African Anteater!

Well, you can imagine what happened when he pulled that thing out of his book bag. All the boys went "Cool, Max! Awesome!" And all the little girls started running around throwing up and screaming like, well, like little girls! Anyway, it wasn't long before the Anteater story began to spread and everyone from far and wide ran to take a look. Including, unfortunately, Max's teacher. She immediately grossed out, and then freaked out as she had to dispose of the poor dead "Anteater." That's where Max lost his book bag. (I mean, what learned, hygene conscious kindergarten teacher is going to actually touch a dead rodent? Throw the thing away, bag and all!) Then of course, every student who had touched it (or had come within 10 feet of it) had to scrub all the skin off their hands and report to the Hazmat Decontamination Facility (not really). But everyone did get a crash course on what was, and what was not appropriate, to bring to class. And Max? Well, he didn't exactly get in any trouble, but he was a little sad. I mean its tough to lose your Anteater AND your book bag all in one day!

OR WAS IT?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...Max was really having a problem buying into this "mouse" theory. Because after all, he had seen PLENTY of Anteater pictures in his life, and they all have teeth and a long snout (just like the one he found that morning, right?) Well, turns out Max was right. Oh, not about the Anteater, but about the mouse. Truth is, after a thorough investigation, the critter turned out to be neither a mouse nor an Anteater, but a baby opossum which had fallen from its nest into Max's front yard. (Which explained the teeth and snout!) And obviously, that meant the well intentioned teacher was wrong as well. But... we all learned a really great lesson. And that is this: "Things are not always as they first appear."

SO IT IS IN LIFE

Sometimes, life offers up some pretty unusual and uncomfortable, and even down right unbearable situations. And on the surface , those situations may appear to be things which are destined to harm us, or destroy us. But that's where the "lesson of the Anteater" comes in to play. Because the Bible teaches us that "what the devil means for evil, God means for good." In fact, Paul says in Romans that "ALL things work together for good to them that love God..." In other words, even the things that are hurtful, and that appear to be designed to bring us down, are things that God promises to use to somehow, in some way, at some time, bless us.

Things are not always as they appear at first glance. Because of that, why not try thanking God today for what's troubling you? Praise Him for the things that are causing you pain. Take Him at His word when you're going through "stuff", and see if He won't (out of those things), bring you abundant blessings. And by Abundant, I'm talkin' like enough to fill up an Anteaters Snout!