O Possum Baum!

Poor Zatara!

A man walked into a plane with an opossum.

No joke!  It happened.

Gerald Tautenhahn and his opossum Zatara, flew Jet Blue for a Thanksgiving visit with his mother in Texas.  But on the return trip he ran into trouble.  Gerald and his pet were kicked off of the plane after another customer saw Zatara escape from his carrier, and noticed it was not a cat or a dog.

Honestly.

What’s this world coming to when you can’t take your opossum with you on an airplane to visit mom?

Zatara joined a long list of other animals that have been escorted from airplanes, including a squirrel and a pig.  Though, you may be aware, a miniature horse by the name of “Flirty” was able to fly from Chicago to Omaha just a few short months ago.

He flew an airline that knew how to keep the “mane thing” the “mane thing.”

If I might borrow from a rather worn-out, but relevant phrase…

“What would Jesus do?”

Where would the Biblical narrative be without animals?

We assume there were animals in the vicinity of Jesus’ birth since He was placed in a manger.  That’s why the “cattle were lowing” in one of our favorite Christmas songs.

It is possible one of the shepherds who came to visit Jesus carried a lamb with him.  At least that’s what most nativity scenes seem to indicate.

People speculate that Mary rode to Bethlehem on a donkey, and perhaps used the same mode of transportation when she and Joseph fled to Egypt.

Jesus once called a Gentile woman a “dog” to make a point to the contrary, and He said it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it was for a rich man to get into heaven.

Did you know you are more important to God than the birds of the air?  Jesus referenced them in His Sermon on the Mount.

A few days before His death and resurrection, Jesus rode a donkey into the city of Jerusalem.

Soon afterward, His good friend Peter denied Him and a rooster crowed.

And I would be remiss if I did not remind us all that Jesus was the “Lamb of God”, slain for the sins of the world.

To think that someone got bent out of shape over a cute little opossum on an airplane.  Jesus would have put the sweet creature in first class and kicked the complainer onto the “outer tarmac”.

OK.

Maybe not.

I feel certain Jesus didn’t need an emotional support animal since He had at least ten thousand angels at His disposal.

Still, I can’t help but wonder what would happen if Jesus boarded a jetliner with a pet.  What would we say?  Where would He sit?

Anywhere He wanted, of course.

And something tells me He might like Zatara.  They both know something about death.

Only Jesus was “playing” when he died.  And He created a much bigger commotion when He came back to life than an opossum on a plane.

Wherever you are, Zatara, Merry Christmas.  Jesus loves you more than you will know.

Whoa, Whoa, Whoa!

I should add that this devotion is what happens with too little sleep and too much caffeine.

Merry Christmas to all!