Another great story from my friend Betty.
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God …… Why Skunks?
Why do we have skunks? Yep, that’s going to be one of the questions on my “God List” when I see Him. If you don’t know the skunk story, well here’s the short version.
One early morning, about 6 weeks ago now, our 17 month old black lab went outside on her regular routine of doing her business and surveying the property. On her rounds she discovered a skunk in our front yard and, since she is still very much a playful pup, decided it might be a nice playmate. Now you can probably guess what happened next. The skunk did NOT want to play and proceeded to give her a spray just to let her know. By that time my husband and I had seen the skunk and were horrified to say the least. As we expected, the dog smelled exactly as we thought …..just like a skunk. What we didn’t expect was that she would come running in the house and clean off her face onto our sofa. Yep, that’s what I said, on our sofa. All the way down the front edge of our three cushions was now skunk odor, not to mention the smell left on the dog. So, now my husband and I are in a panic to get the remaining smell off the dog. Still in our pajamas at 7:30 a.m., we corral the dog, run water in our tub, gather some doggie towels and begin to shampoo our 80 pound frisky lab, who also wants this stink off her. Lather, rinse, lather, rinse and still, although drastically reduced, the smell of skunk is still evident. Now, since we’ve concentrated on the source (the lab) we’ve also abandoned the sofa which is really stinking in the living room. (Go ahead, I hear the laughter already.) Finally we decided we had done all we could do and dried off the dog, tried to figure out how many clothes we needed to throw away, take our shower and get to work late.
So, the sofa just sat there all day and continued to contaminate our home with the skunk odor. By the time we returned home from work, well let’s just say, it was not a good thing. We called the neighbor across the street to come help us haul the sofa outside to our large front porch. At that point we had rid the house of the largest portion of the two sources of the smell. Now comes the decontamination. My husband and I, with Lysol and other disinfectants in hand, set out to clean floors, windows, doors and anything else in our path. We just wanted to walk into our home without the overwhelming skunk smell.
Now, the smell is gone (thank God) and just this week that sofa, the one that was my favorite sofa ever, the one I loved when I saw it in the manufacturer’s brochure, the nicest sofa I ever had and the one I had waited, worked and saved so hard for was gone. It was kind of sad to see it go, even though I knew it could not be repaired (it also had some puppy damage). I thought about how much I had invested in that sofa. Then later, I began to reflect on my investments. Oh not the monetary investment, but rather the emotional investment. I began thinking about just how much emotional attachment I had, not only to the sofa, but to other “things” I have. So, this was a time of reflection and an opportunity to actually learn something about this whole experience.
What I’ve learned is that my “attachment to things” is not of God. That doesn’t mean I don’t continue to appreciate and care for the things I have. It just means that I have a new perspective. I had such an emotional investment in that sofa that the loss of it diminished my joy of the other, more important, things in my life. I would now rather concentrate on the joy of my friendships, my wonderful husband, my family that I dearly love, my church and the great love and forgiveness that Jesus Christ gives me each day. After all, I am the child of a King!
“Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21 (NIV)
I might add to that, “where skunks and doggies do not destroy”. Nevertheless, I try to look at circumstances as an opportunity to learn something. I think I need to work just as diligently at thanking God for all that He gives, as I did diligently working and saving for that sofa. That sofa is now gone but God’s love and forgiveness is always there for me, and you. Eventually, I’ll get another sofa (God willing), but it won’t be one of my treasures. Those are in Heaven!
