Fox in the night

Tonight, I left my organic chem lab after a long day of work and class, and so at about 9:45pm I found myself walking across a cold, nearly deserted downtown campus back to my car.

Plodding along down a path through the middle of campus, I saw something stirring on the little grass mound between paths, maybe 10-15 feet away from where I was about to be passing by. I watched for a minute, my brain trying to interpret what I was seeing-- a cardboard box or brown plastic grocery bag stirring in the wind? A dog?

Shortly the brain clicked, as a fox straightened up from where it was lolling about on the lawn and nonchalantly starting strolling over onto the path, headed back whence I had just come. I slowed to a stop, dumbfounded as the critter wandered by, not at all concerned about my presence.

A man was heading down the sidewalk approaching me, and I glanced over to see if I could catch his eye, certain he would be just as delighted as I (ok, well nearly, let's be at least remotely realistic here) at the unexpected sight of our wildlife friend, right there in town. But, no-- he was looking straight ahead, which meant he certainly must have seen the fox, who was now trotting casually along directly in front of the man's route, illuminated by lamp-light.

I continued watching the fox as the man approached and neared passing me. Gazing back, I said, "huh. interesting." ...because it seemed unfathomable that this individual clearly was not going to stop and say to me something akin to "HOLY COW! DID YOU SEE THAT FOX THAT IS OVER THERE, BEHIND YOU?! WOW!! *SO* COOL!!" so I felt that the miraculous occurrence at least needed some acknowledgment, tongue-tied as it may have left me.

"It's a fox," he told me.

"Yeah," I replied.

Apparently he only thought I thought it was interesting, because he thought I was not actually aware what the animal was. Apparently not everyone gets so overwhelmingly excited over getting to hang out, even if only for a few short moments, with a fox. (I was about to say "with a fox in the city," or "with a fox unexpectedly," but who are we kidding. Of course I would have been just as giddy and thrilled, had I encountered the fox on a focused, organized all-out fox-seeking adventure to some sort of specifically fox-occupied territory.)

As I walked on the rest of the way to the parking garage, grinning like an idiot, I thought of what a nice treat that was, for God to have arranged for me. Apparently HE gets me, a little better than the random man on campus did.

And I thought about Matthew 7:9-11 (not by verse, mind you, I had to look it up when I got home):

"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" (NIV)

I mean, I know Jesus probably meant bigger things than encountering a fox on a late-evening downtown stroll-- like hope, and joy, and salvation, and whatnot-- but, still. I was pretty thrilled by this good gift, nonetheless. The best treat I managed to arrange for my cat of late was to tell him he could keep the little plastic measuring cup from the top of a bottle of Robitussin. And that's after he'd already found it, on his own, and batted at it on the floor a bit.

Yet God came up with something WAY, WAY cooler than that for me. It's really pretty humbling. Plastic medicine cup... or fox in the night. God totally wins!