Look! Up in the sky… it’s a bird… it’s a plane…
It’s a … beaver?
The year is 1948. Idaho was being overrun by people who wanted to inhabit the western wooded portion of the state. For years, trees and foliage had stood tall in the pristine wilderness that served as home to the usual and menagerie of animals, but also to woodland caribou, the grizzly bear, the Canada lynx, bison, and the gray wolf. Most of the animals willingly left the area populated by humans. Beavers were a different story.
The normal activities of beavers can be highly destructive to human settlements. Calls were being made to Idaho’s Fish & Game Division, looking for solutions to the problem. Typical methods for resettling animals were considered impossible for the beavers. That’s when Elmo Heter, an employee with the Fish & Game Division, came up with the most unorthodox solution.
This is a post-WWII era. There were plenty of surplus parachutes. Heter suggested capturing the beavers and parachuting them into the Chamberlain Basin, “an isolated expanse of protected land”1 in an alpine area located in the White Cloud Mountains of central Idaho which includes a chain of ten alpine and glacial Paternoster lakes.
Idaho Fish and Game’s Steve Liebenthal writes that “Heter had to figure out how to drop the beavers safely. First idea: a woven willow box. Once it hit the ground with the beaver inside, the animal could chew its way to freedom. But Liebenthal said that didn’t work.
“The beavers went to work immediately upon being put into one of these boxes and it was feared they might chew their way out while dropping from the sky or might even chew their way out while they were in the airplane, which would cause a problem for the pilot.”
“So Heter came up with a specially-designed wooden box that would open upon impact. He tested it first with some dummy weights. Then he found an older male beaver who became his test pilot. Heter named him Geronimo.
“And Geronimo went through a series of tests to see how this plan would work,” says Liebenthal.
“Heter dropped Geronimo on a landing field, over and over and over again. Each time, Geronimo popped out of the box, was caught by handlers, and put back inside for another ride.”2 Geronimo’s successful missions resulted in 76 beavers parachuting into the wilderness region. Only one didn’t survive. The rest went on to make this region their home and their offspring have the run of the place today.
Heter’s unorthodox idea worked!
God is the Master at using unorthodox ideas. For instance, Elijah called for a drought which brought about a famine. This affected him just like everyone else. 1 Kings 17:3-6 says, “Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. (4) And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. (5) So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. (6) And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.”
Elisha went to home of a Shunamite woman. Her child had died and everyone is understandably upset. 2 Kings 4:34-35 tells us, “And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm. (35) Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.”
In the New Testament, there is a story that strikes me funny. John 9:1, 6-7 tells us, “And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth… (6) When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, (7) And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.” The man wasn’t deaf. He had to hear Jesus clear his throat and then Ptooey! The next thing that man feels is something cool and wet touching his eyelids.
Here’s another. How do you feed 5,000 hungry people who have followed Jesus all day? First, you look in the checking account and say, “…Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.” (John 6:7) Then, you hunt through the crowd and run across a “… lad … which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?” (John 6:9)
I wonder if Jesus let out a sigh of exasperation.
John 6:11-13 records the strange solution. “And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. (12) When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. (13) Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.”
God certainly seems to have some odd solutions to common problems. Today, you might be dealing with an issue that’s as invasive in your life as a colony of beavers. Will God solve the problem in a common way? Maybe. But there’s also a good chance that He might have an unusual solution.
Never forget the truth of Luke 18:27. “And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”
1https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/time-beavers-parachuted-idahos-backcountry-180953918/
2https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/environment/2015-01-14/parachuting-beavers-into-idahos-wilderness-yes-it-really-happened
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