Resources - Children's Pages

March 2001

Kid's page

The visitor
 

Anne Groenenboom

“Chris! Amy! Carla! I want you here in the kitchen right now!” Mum called sternly from the kitchen. The children knew that when their mother called them like that, it was time to hurry. Something was definitely wrong and they raced down the hallway to see what was the matter. They gasped in amazement as they saw the mess on the kitchen bench. The bowl of fruit had been almost completely demolished, with bits of banana peel, nectarine seeds and a few crushed grapes scattered amid pools of fruit juice. To make matters worse, there were bits of fruitcake all over the bench too, part of the cake that Mum had made the previous night.

“Which one of you is responsible for all this mess?” Mum demanded, looking at each one of them in turn, but the children shook their heads.
“Well, someone must have done it!” Mum declared. “It wasn’t your father or me, so it must have been one of you.”

As all three children started talking at once, loudly denying that they had done such a thing, Joel started to howl in the bedroom because nobody had picked him up yet. Dad came hurrying down the hall, his hair still wet from the shower, to see what was causing all the noise. He stared at the mess on the bench top as the children noisily proclaimed their innocence and Mum complained about her ruined fruitcake.

“I made this cake last night, for Mrs Harrison’s birthday and I left it wrapped in a tablecloth to cool overnight. Now it’s spoiled so I I’ll have to make another one this morning and it’s too hot to have the oven on,” she wailed.

Dad surveyed the damage, then he examined the kitchen window, which had been left open overnight to let some cool air into the house.
“I think I know what has happened,” he said, pointing to the fly screen. “See how the screen is torn here.” He showed them a gaping hole.

“Have we had a burglar?” Amy gasped in horror, but Dad shook his head.

“No Amy... well, not a human one, anyway. I think we’ve been visited by a possum. I’ve heard some of the neighbours complaining about possums eating the fruit from their trees and the Greens down the road had their kitchen broken into by possums last weekend,” he explained.

“I didn’t know there were any possums around here,” Chris commented. “We’re too far away from the bush aren’t we?”

“Well, possums adapt very easily to living close to people, provided there are plenty of trees around. There are lots of trees along the creek and the trees around here have grown bigger in the last few years.” Dad replied. “This area used to be all bush five years ago, so it was really people who invaded the possums’ territory. The possums probably think it still belongs to them.”

“Well, I don’t see why they had to pick on us!” Mum grumbled as she started to clean up the mess.

“There probably isn’t much of their normal food around, because of the drought. I guess your fruitcake smelled so good that the possum came to investigate,” Dad laughed as he put his arm around Mum’s shoulders.

“I don’t think it’s funny at all.” Mum retorted. “This is obviously going to be a problem, so what are you going to do about it? I certainly don’t want possums coming inside each time that window is open and it’s much too hot to keep it closed.”

“It’s just as well it’s Saturday,” Dad commented. “After breakfast, I’ll get some new mesh for the fly screen and find something to stop the possums getting in. That should fix it.”

“But if that poor possum is so hungry and we lock her out, what will she eat?” Amy asked. “She may even have babies to feed and they might starve.”

“Why don’t we put some food outside for them?” Carla suggested.

“I’m sure they’ll be able to find enough food by themselves,” Dad replied.

“There are plenty of fruit trees and flowers around for them.”

“I didn’t know that possums ate flowers!” Chris sounded surprised.

“Nectar is one of their basic foods,” Dad told him.

What kind of possum would it be, Dad?” Amy asked.

“I’d say it was a brush-tailed possum. They’re the ones that usually come near people and I know they live in this area.” Dad answered.

The children chatted excitedly about possums all through breakfast, but Mum sat quietly, still looking rather upset. She wasn’t looking forward to cooking in the middle of a heat wave and today looked like being a scorcher.

While the children were doing the breakfast dishes, Dad went to the hardware store to get what he needed and Mum started to mix a new birthday cake for Mrs Harrison. Dad came back with a piece of mesh to mend the fly screen. Next, he attached a piece of strong steel mesh firmly to the window opening.

“I hope that will keep your friend out,” he said, grinning at Mum.
“I hope so too... and that possum certainly isn’t my friend!” Mum muttered.

“I wonder how all the possums felt when people started moving in here,” Chris commented. “It must have been hard for them when most of their trees were cut down.”

Dad nodded. “There would have been a lot of native animals displaced, not only possums but birds and koalas and wombats... and others as well. Some would have escaped further into the bush, but others probably died.“

“I saw people on the TV last night, protesting about animal rights,” Mum remarked. “I guess animals don’t really have many rights, do they? People just seem to do what they want, regardless of the animals living in the area.”

Dad nodded. “I know that God gave man dominion over all the earth, but people think they can do anything at all, without counting the cost to the environment... but don’t forget that those protesters think that animals have more rights than people, so they’ve got it wrong too.”

“We saw a program at school about a council that won’t let people build in a certain area because they’ll disturb a colony of koalas,” Chris added. “They were doing the right thing weren’t they?”

“Yes, Chris, because they considered all facts before they allowed people to go ahead with their plans. That’s what everyone should be doing. God has given us a big responsibility to care for every part of creation, but many people think that making money or getting what they want for themselves is the most important thing,” Dad explained.
“What humans do has a great effect on the environment, especially on the small creatures living in the area. Trees are removed and water is polluted without any thought for what happens to those little creatures. I suppose I shouldn’t grumble because one possum came looking for what people had taken away from her, should I?” Mum said, as she put the cake in the oven.

“Why don’t people take notice of those things? Why do they only think of themselves? Why don’t they care about those little creatures?” Amy asked.

“It’s because we’re all affected by sin,” Dad explained. “Even though we love God and want to serve Him, we’re still often selfish aren’t we? Well, sin affects people in many ways. People are very thoughtless of the needs of anyone or anything and they’re often greedy and usually too lazy to do the right thing, even if they can see what’s happening.”

“What can we do to make everything better?” was Amy’s next question.

“Well, first, we have to remember how wonderfully God has made everything, and take notice of how perfectly everything works together, then make sure that we don’t do anything to upset the balances that God has made,” Mum answered.

Amy looked puzzled. “I know what ‘balance’ means, but I don’t understand what you mean when you talked about the balances God has made.”

“God has made everything to work together perfectly... animals, plants, soil, water, weather and so on,” Mum explained and Amy nodded. “If people do something to change one of those things, then everything else is affected.

Sometimes things are spoiled and that has an effect on everything too. Just think how polluted water affects everything.” Amy nodded again.

“It’s not always easy, but many people are beginning to realise that they have to be more careful in the way they do things and use things.” Dad added.

“So that’s why people often protest about caring for the environment, because they want to make others more aware of their responsibility,” Chris remarked. “Why don’t we all try to be more responsible from now on?” Mum suggested and everyone agreed.

 

SOME THINGS FOR YOU TO DO.

1. See if you can find some bible verses that tell you how wonderfully God made the world and everything in it. Use the verses to make a poster to remind you to care for the environment.

2. See if you can find out about what your local area was like before people came to live there. List the good things and the bad things that have happened since then.

3. Find out about the native animals and birds that used to live in your area. Which ones are still there? Try to work out why the others left.

4. Remind everyone you know about their responsibility to care about what is happening.
   
    

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