Friends,

The other day I was outside watering some shrubs while talking on the phone. I smelled something dead and even mentioned it to the person I was talking with, but since I was quite preoccupied, I didn’t think too much about it. Later though, in the afternoon, when I was back outside, I saw a buzzard sitting up top one of the dead oak trees in the front pasture. I thought maybe it’d be appropriate for me to investigate for what had caused the dead smell earlier as well as an ugly buzzard now. I found nothing, but when the bird flew away from me only a short distance and to a tree even closer to the house, I knew there had to be something. But, still finding nothing, I climbed over the fence to go back into the house. Well, there it was. Right there a few feet from the house: A dead armadillo. Sigh. I like armadillos. They’re so cute as they meander around Texas, and since we feed our two dogs plenty of tasty foods, why does our one dog have to attack and kill alien animals for no good reason? Yea, she keeps the coyotes away, but still, I hate that about her.

Well, I picked the poor dillo up by the tail and carried it to the small treeless hill by the pond. There I left it, and of course, within the hour I could see through the window several vultures having their delightful feast. Yuk.

Anyway, I thought later about this little ordeal and how much I hadn’t liked carrying that stench, though Dillo probably hadn’t been dead even 12 hours. It made me think of how people carry sin around, and how stinky it smells to those who can smell it, and how the stench usually grows worse with each passing day. I thought too of how God can smell even a speck of sin. The rest of us can usually only detect blatant sin in someone, or maybe see some depravity written across their faces, but if this is grotesque to us, think of how it must repel God.

God does hate sin. He is repulsed by it (as we should also be). And He is angry with –and will judge– those who deliberately hang on to it when He has provided a way to be cleansed and rid of it. (Heb. 10:26-31) On top of this, many of these who have a stench growing inside their hearts, laugh and joke about their smelliness, and even try to accumulate to themselves other dead souls so as to make the smell permeate everywhere. Consorting with each other on more ways to spread their stink, they make laws that “call evil good and good evil.” (Isa. 5:20) “They rely on empty arguments and speak lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil… Their feet rush into sin.” (59:4,7) Rush into the stench? Yes. For they like that dead stuff! But would they really –if they had a sense of smell? We could see if they enjoyed holding a two-days-dead dillo up to their noses for a half day. Likely they would vomit several times over. But why don’t they vomit over their loathsome conduct? Hmmm… –they just must not have a sense of smell.

Well, this is what I was thinking as I carrying that dead armadillo away, trying not to look at its guts hanging out and trying not to breathe much. It is truly a wonder that anyone righteous, especially God, can even breathe amongst this society anymore. However, with the help of the Spirit, and with God’s love in us, we can go forth and love those whose hearts are dead, repulsive, and in need of the Savior. Someone did it for us, did they not?

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