Devotion 384 - skunks

The evening was simply beautiful.  The kind you want to put in a bottle and pull out when the snow flies late in winter.  The temperature was perfect, the breeze was just enough and the sun was just thinking about sinking through the pink and blue sky.

The girls and I strolled.  We were heading to the park but we took our time.  Ava handed me a bouquet of dandelions and Lily reminded me of all the things she wanted to do this summer.  It was perfect.

We turned up the avenue.  I walk this street every single morning.  I know it well.  I looked just a bit in front of us and saw what looked like a large black plastic trash bag.  

I will admit after walking this same pathway for many years, I take some ownership.  I do not take kindly to littering. I wished I had our wagon as I would have grabbed that bag and deposited it back home in our canister.

As we approached the bag I realized the black I thought plastic was fur and the scent surrounding this poor unfortunate creature gave his species away. I told the girls what exactly it was.  One yelled “COOL!”  And the other...the older, just screamed.

I will admit the size was rather daunting, the smell worse.  The girls and I quickened our step with Ava yelling, “I saw a real live skunk,” and Lily and I correcting that “live” was not an appropriate adjective.

We wondered exactly how long the stink would stay with us.  We were not fortunate enough to realize the smell and our black bag were associated.  That is the way it is with stink, it tends to stay.

I once had a preacher refer to it as stinking thinking.  He was so right.

The lady, the beautifully bold lady that shared with our bible study of the young man who in grade school had told her she was dumb, knew it.  She has fought that stink for decades.

For me it was the boy who asked if I was going to a dance.  I replied with a quick “No” and he whispered, “I can see why.”

I am convinced the person that penned the words, “Sticks and stones…..” was never a high school girl.

I think about the purveyor of those words and that stink. They remind me of the snake in Eden.  It was the snake’s words that were so compelling and so damning.  I believe one could compare a thousand compliments to one lie and it would be the latter that bears weight and leaves scars.

I have wondered why God allowed Satan into the garden, why it was words the serpent offered.  I have wondered why God started with people and after the fall He had us start people as babies.

I think the destruction that Satan wielded was so devastating the Father had to begin with innocence that would absorb truth in little manageable pieces. He knew starting with children we would dream big dreams, dreams that could even defy truth. 

For a decade or so, we can truly believe we are princesses and superheroes until that one day when someone crashes through our castle doors.

 

That someone whether strange or familiar comes within our circle of thought and takes up permanent residence.  With nothing but words he or she unpacks our fantasies, our confidence and our esteem.

They plant invisible seeds that grow into doubt and worry and distrust and defeat and the person we thought we were and could be becomes invisible.

And our beautiful garden filled with bouquets of dandelions and promise now stinks with the stench of lies.

The question dear one is how do we remove the stink.  How do we clean out the corners of our minds where hope has been hijacked and promises pillaged?

We run.

  We scream, we call the enemy a liar.

If the words that were whispered are those that we would not wish for ourselves I guarantee they have been written and rehearsed by none other than Satan.

Oh he is crafty.  Even now you remember and remind yourself that you are not good enough, or smart enough or beautiful enough.  You have done or thought bad things that live up to the words whispered to you all those years ago.

You are right, you are not enough.

Isn’t it just extraordinary that we know the One who is?

Is that why He left the serpent into the garden?

Is that why He let the bully cozy up to me at my locker?

He knew one day my fear would cause me to run hard to Him.

He does NOT make mistakes. Your body, it is beautifully made in His image, your mind as well.  Your passions, they too are patterned after the code that He drafted in your DNA.

We are not to be like our neighbor or the magazines we see in the grocery line. 

We are to be the image we see in the mirror reflecting the glory that is His.

Embrace His fragrance.

 

So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord--who is the Spirit--makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. 

2 Corinthians 3:18