On our drive to church, we pass by several wooded parks. Periodically, we get a good whiff of skunk as we drive by. Some person or animal has disturbed the pretty “little striped kitties” and reaped the rewards.
As I got a scent of one the other day, my mind drifted back more than twenty years.
Our eldest son Kris worked at a Christian camp/retreat center during his summer break from Bible College. Part of his job was catching skunks. The camp seems to attract baby skunks, and campers and skunks are not a good combination.
Kris trapped the young skunks and moved them to a central holding facility, where they were later disposed of. He caught the skunks using a small bucket attached to a ten-foot two-by-four. The small bucket kept them from raising their tails and spraying, and the two-by-four allowed him to get close enough to place a bucket over them without frightening them too much.
To hold the skunk in place, a piece of stiff cardboard is slid underneath the bucket to act as a bottom. Then, the race is on. Get the skunk to the holding facility without dropping the cardboard or the bucket and releasing an angry skunk with rank malodorous consequences. I don’t recall him having any slips.
Smelling the skunk on the way to church made me glad that I was not the one to be doing the skunk run at camp. It also got me thinking.
In a way, all our secret sins are like skunks in a bucket. We keep them tucked away, hoping that we do not let the bucket or cardboard fall and the consequences of the sin escape. We know that if the sins escape, it will be about as pleasant as an angry skunk.
We need to take those sins before God with a repentant heart and throw ourselves on His mercy. There is no other way to get rid of them. He knows that we carry them; they are only a secret in our minds.
God sees all things, and all things will be made known.
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:11-15
If all was revealed today, what would you smell like?
Until next time, rejoice that God not only knows all, but that He is willing to forgive all who choose His Son.
Kevin
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