Chapter 5 - The Letter to the Raccoons

Just a few hours after Tanya the Turtle had arrived at Fancy Fox Den, Paul the Porcupine was himself only about three hours away from a long row of hollow trees called Raccoon Row. As he walked, he became hungry and stopped for a few minutes at a bush full of ripe red raspberries for a snack. “Umm, umm…how tasty!” he said out loud as he threw a few raspberries up in the air and then caught them with his mouth. When he finished his snack, Paul started licking his teeth and realized that he had many raspberry seeds stuck in them. However, this was not a problem for Paul. As you know, porcupines have many long, pointy, poky things called quills sticking out all over them. As he started walking again, Paul picked a quill out of his back and turned it into a toothpick. Then one-by-one he picked all the little raspberry seeds out of his teeth. “Ah, that is much better,” he said happily as he licked his teeth again.

As Paul the Porcupine continued walking, the Holy Spirit brought to his mind a time three years earlier when God had spoken a strong word of discipline to him. One day while walking through a park in the Western Woods, Paul noticed a rotten apple that someone had thrown on the ground. Now, Paul knew that that rotten apple was stinky and dirty, and that God did not want him to eat it. It was forbidden fruit. It was full of disease, and it was bound to make him sick. However, everything in Paul’s body craved the rotten fruit and wanted to eat it. Instead of falling on his face in that moment and asking God for power to resist temptation, Paul looked around to make sure that no one looking. He then pulled a quill out of his back and poked it into the rotten apple. He then began to eat the apple like an appetizer. He took it in and savored it slowly, bit-by-bit. In the moment, the forbidden fruit tasted delicious. However, later that night, Paul’s stomach got sick from the rotten fruit and he began to throw up. Then the next day, Paul went to church, smiled, and acted as if he had never eaten that rotten apple the day before. However, during the worship time the Holy Spirit spoke to him. “Paul,” the Spirit said, “I see all things. Why are you eating the kind of fruit that I will never allow into My kingdom?” When the Holy Spirit said this, Paul wept and wept in repentance. He then went home, took all the rotten fruit scattered about his tunnel, and with firm resolve flushed it all down the toilet. He then thanked God for intervening in His life with His word of warning and discipline before it was too late.

As Paul the Porcupine remembered how much freedom God had brought to his own life through the fire of discipline, he prayed for the raccoons, that God would also open their hearts to the message in the envelope. Truly, Paul knew how hard it could be sometimes to receive a word of discipline.  However, he also knew that in the end God’s discipline always produces good and lasting fruit.

As the sky started growing dark, Paul the Porcupine finally came to the first hollow tree of Raccoon Row. The trees of Raccoon Row were situated one after another in a straight line for about two miles. On both sides of the trees trash cans and picnic tables were scattered about everywhere. Below the picnic tables were crumbs that had fallen onto the ground, and filling the garbage cans to the brim was yucky, stinky garbage of all different kinds. “Phew,” Paul said, pinching his nose shut. “This trash stinks!”

As Paul held his nose and continued looking down Raccoon Row, the sun finally went down and countless numbers of raccoons started coming out of the hollow trees. After doing their stretches and waking up for the night, the raccoons all scurried down the trees and over to the picnic tables and trash cans. Many of the raccoons went straight for the picnic tables and started gobbling up the crumbs that had fallen to the ground. While they did this, countless numbers of others climbed up on top of the picnic tables and began diving head-first into the garbage cans. As the crumb-eating raccoons moved anxiously from crumb to crumb, Paul noticed that even though these raccoons kept nibbling away, they were not becoming satisfied. He also noticed that as the trash-eating raccoons kept taking garbage into themselves, they had a hard time stopping themselves and just grew hungrier to eat more and more garbage. 

One of the raccoons saw Paul standing there. Thinking that Paul might want some garbage too, the raccoon grabbed a rotten apple full of worms and took it over to Paul. “Hey there, Mr. Porcupine,” the raccoon began. “My name is Riley. Would you like to have a bite of this apple?”

“No thank you, Riley,” Paul responded, still holding his nose. “That fruit is forbidden.”

When Paul said this, Riley was poked with conviction. “Who says it is forbidden?!” Riley said with irritation and anger in his voice. 

“God does,” Paul replied. “And this brings me to the reason why I’m here. Riley, Jesus has sent me here with a letter that He wants me to read to you raccoons.”

“Well, is it a pokey message?” Riley asked suspiciously. “We raccoons go to church every Sunday, but we don’t like critters poking around in our business.”

“I don’t know what the letter says,” Paul answered honestly. “Jesus told me not to open the envelope until I reached the raccoons. However, though I don’t know what the letter says, what I do know is that whatever Jesus has to say to you, it will be for your good, even if it hurts. Jesus has eyes of fire, and when He speaks, He hides behind no mask. His words are truth and life, even if they sting.”

These words pierced Riley, and he knew that the Porcupine was right. Riley then jumped up on a picnic table and shouted out to all the raccoons, saying, “Everyone please quiet down and come over here near this picnic table! This porcupine has something he wants to say!”

“Well, it better not be anything pokey!” the other raccoons grumbled as they dropped their trash and moved close to the picnic table on which Riley was standing. After they had gathered around, Paul the Porcupine climbed up on top of the picnic table and pulled out his envelope. When he opened it and pulled out Jesus’ letter to the raccoons, the Holy Spirit came upon him and he began to read the letter boldly:

Dear Raccoons,

First, I want to say that I love you very much. And it is for that very reason that I, Jesus, have a few things I must tell you. The desire of My heart is to use you mightily in this age as vessels of honor in My service, and then in the age to come, to give you the earth and thrones of glory as an eternal inheritance. However, you raccoons are not walking worthy of such a high calling. I see all things. Nothing in all creation is hidden from My eyes. Night after night you feed yourselves on trash when you think no one is looking. Do you not realize that those who refuse to repent, and who keep giving themselves to such garbage, are idolaters and have no inheritance in My coming kingdom? How can you expect to see My face then, when at present you are feeding your own faces with nothing but things that stink to Me? Without holiness no one will see Me! All week long you feast on rotten apples and stinky banana peels, and yet on Sundays you come into My presence wearing masks as though nothing were wrong. However, I see through the masks. O raccoons, do not be deceived! Stop living according to the night, and live according to the Day! Many of you desire to leave the trash behind, but how can you ever expect to do so if all you ever eat are the crumbs that fall from My table? Do you not know that through My Spirit there is grace sufficient to resist every kind of sin and temptation? Leave the forbidden fruit behind, take up your cross, and deny yourselves through My own power working in you. Abide in Me! Feast at the table of My Word! Keep calling on My name for grace and mercy in your moment of need, and My Spirit will come to you swiftly and give you power to say no to sin and the devil. Seek Me while I may be found!

O raccoons, the night is nearly over, and the Day is almost here! My kingdom is about to come to the earth like a rock that will shatter all other kingdoms to pieces. Of the increase of My government and peace there will be no end. In that Day I will reward the righteous and punish the wicked, and will repay each one according to his works. My dear raccoons, you are not yet ready to stand in the glorious presence of the Bright and Morning Star. However, I am not giving up on you! And because of that, I must discipline you to get you on the narrow path and prepare you to rule faithfully at My side in My coming kingdom. In but a few days, I am going to send fire to the Western Woods, and in a moment your love for the stinky trash that I hate will be burned up in the flames. When this happens, flee to the Great Oak. There you will find healing and truth for the days ahead.

Love,

Jesus

When Paul finished reading his letter, every raccoon around the picnic table felt poked to the core. Some of the raccoons responded to the poking with tears and repentance, but others became angry and began to show their teeth and bear their claws. One of these angry raccoons came up to Paul and tried to scratch him, but instead he poked himself on one of the porcupine’s sharp quills. “Ouch!” the raccoon shouted. When all of the other raccoons saw this, they became afraid to attack Paul directly with their claws or teeth. They then began to grab garbage from the trash cans and throw it at the porcupine. Paul quickly scurried off the picnic table and ran off into the woods. As he ran, some of the raccoons shouted at him, “Keep your pointed, pokey words to yourself and don’t ever come back! We are under grace, and so we will fill ourselves with as much garbage as we want!”

Once Paul the Porcupine had reached a safe distance away from the raccoons, he turned his face back toward Raccoon Row and with tears in his eyes began to pray. “Father, just as you have had mercy on me, I who have loved the forbidden fruit more than all others, have mercy on these raccoons whom You love,” he said. “Teach them the true meaning of grace, I pray, and get them ready to shine with Jesus in His coming kingdom.” Then shaking the dust off his feet, Paul the Porcupine began the journey back to the Great Oak.