What IS That Smell??

We're back in Crosby for another week-end away from our Bismarck duties with the North Dakota State Legislature.  Slowly, but surely, the daunting task of "putting away Christmas" is coming to an end, with most of the totes tucked away.  As work progressed today, however, there was a strange odor in our basement.  Try as I might, I couldn't figure out where the smell was coming from.

It seemed to be coming from somewhere in the TV room, but also was wafting into the storage room while boxes were being shuffled.  The smell was hard to pinpoint, but bordered on "something rotten".  What was it?

Then, with the Christmas things out of the way, I focused on what was left in the room and came across a pail full of empty pop cans.  Since our grandkid's school collects the rings from on top of the cans, I proceeded to carefully break each one off.  That's when the source of the smell came to light.

Last week-end as we watched the Super Bowl game, my husband had treated himself to some raw shrimp.  Apparently he felt an easy place to dispose of the tails was inside an empty Mt. Dew can.  This would have been fine if the can was immediately thrown away.  Instead, as it sat there over the course of a week, it left us with an odor I could have done without.  Lesson learned!

As I was thinking about the hidden culprit, a Scripture verse came to mind.  It comes at a point when Moses is talking to the Israelites about settling in the Promised Land:

But if you fail to do this, [drive out the enemies]

you will be sinning against the Lord; and you may be sure

that your sin will find you out.

~Numbers 32:23

 

Yes, it seems even when we attempt to keep our sins hidden, they have a way of surfacing.  Perhaps today would be a good time to search out your life and dispose of any sin lurking in the shadows.  I'm so grateful for a Savior who stands ready to "clean up the mess" in our lives.  All He asks is we come to Him, pointing out the sin He already knows is there.  What a joy to know He freely forgives and removes the sins from our life "as far as the east is from the west". (Psalm 103:12)