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If you live somewhere in the United States, you don’t have to join a safari or head to an exotic locale to come face to face with an extraordinary creature.
The odds are fairly good there’s an opossum somewhere in your neighborhood right now. And even though they are among the least appreciated creatures (in part because they are among the least likely to win a beauty contest) “possums” are nevertheless fascinating.
The opossum is the only marsupial native to the United States.
Babies – as many as 20 in a litter, and small as bees – thrive in their mother’s pouch, then hitch rides on her back while maturing.
Like humans, opossums have opposable thumbs. They have excellent immune systems and boast 50 teeth. Unfortunately, they have adapted rather poorly to the invention of the automobile. Opossums are nocturnal, and approaching headlights tend to make them freeze.
They eat virtually anything. Woods, ponds, backyards, and your garbage can provide a never-ending opossum version of Golden Corral.
What’s really interesting about these animals is their response to threats and danger.
When all else fails, opossums “play possum.” Not having escape speed or impressive defensive weapons, they may suddenly keel over.
That’s when an opossum’s legs stiffen, its heart rate slows, its breathing becomes shallow, and its tongue sticks out. In short, opossums look like the Clanton gang after the gunfight at OK Corral. This condition may last as long as 15 minutes. Potential predators tend to sniff around for a while, then walk off.
Before we congratulate opossums on this brilliant tactical maneuver, we should reflect on the fact that studies show they are not exactly trying to be clever. “Playing possum” is essentially an opossum fainting dead away from sheer terror.
So, what happens to human beings when we find ourselves up against threatening, demoralizing, or scary situations? Keeling over and lying still for 15 minutes is not going to be our best move.
That leaves three well-worn options.
Our first option is denial: “I don’t see any problems here.” Our second is blame – pointing to someone else and saying, “Mystery solved; there’s the perpetrator.”
When you think about it, most of the first 10 minutes of the average local or national newscast would disappear if people refused to pursue those first two options. Many of the sad realities of human behavior – libel and gossip, threatened lawsuits, political jousting, and acts of vengeance – derive their power from refusing to take responsibility or assigning blame to other people.
Likewise, sales of over-the-counter medications would be revolutionized. What’s the best-selling category of OTC’s? It’s painkillers. Second place belongs to products that relieve indigestion.
Our heads and stomachs wouldn’t hurt nearly so much if we embraced our third option in the midst of crisis.
It is truly humanity’s Road Less Travelled – the choice to face our problems head-on and get to work.
When Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32), he was calling us, among other things, to abandon the fantasy that life will somehow get better if only we figure out how to hide or run away. In our most fearful moments, we might even ask God to give us a problem-free reality, or let someone else take the fall.
But God refuses to grant such “playing possum” requests.
That’s because our problems, rightly understood, turn out to be some of God’s greatest gifts. Facing them is an unrivalled way to grow our character and turn our hearts toward him.
In the words of British wit G.K. Chesterton, “An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.”
In the end, we won’t want to be asleep during the best part of such adventures.
That’s when God surprises us yet again with the way he chooses to step into our situations and sets things right.