THE SMELL THAT WON'T GO AWAY

My family and I returned from vacation at midnight on Monday to find that our dog had been sprayed by a skunk. This happened in our yard last summer, too, and I am tired of all these smelly situations. Not only does a skunk's spray smell terrible, it also is a smell that is hard to remove from your pet or your person. The odors are carried by an oil that embeds itself in a dog's fur and can take several special baths to remove. That was what happened this go around, beginning in the early hours of my jet lagged return from vacation...

The sins of the world affect us in similar ways. Much as we may hope to jump in a shower and come out spiritually squeaky clean, the stench of our wrongdoing lingers, and lingers, and lingers some more. Though we may go through cycles of confession and forgiveness with those we have harmed, there are no quick remedies to the many hardships that we inflict upon one another. Sin is very much like skunk spray - the smell that won't go away.

It is for this reason that God, in Jesus Christ, became sinlessness for us. God knew that we cannot cleanse ourselves from the sinful stench of the world, so the Lord set out to do it for us. No longer do these odors of the world linger, and linger, and linger on, but are instead washed from us daily by one who came to save us from ourselves. May we always praise the God who takes our skunkiness from us.

Rev. Seth Nelson