Corporal Squirrel

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"I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds. They shall eat, but not be satisfied; they shall play the whore, but not multiply, because they have forsaken the Lord."

Hosea 4:10, ESV

Probably not a verse you're going to find hanging on grandma's wall.

Nonetheless, it's right there in Scripture and refuses to be ignored. I've been doing a deep dive study of Hosea. I started it the first week of February. As it's now almost June, you can see what I mean by "deep dive."

Not gonna lie, I'm ready to be done with it - it's heavy. But it's also deeply meaningful. Quick overview of the book for those who may not be familiar: Israel has strayed from God and broken pretty much every one of God's commandments given to them through Moses. God spends hundreds of years warning them of the consequence of their actions, but time is running out. Thus, God asks the prophet Hosea to marrying an adulterous woman (possible a prostitute, but there is debate over that) as a metaphor for God's relationship with Israel. Gomer, Hosea's wife, continues to leave him and have affairs with other men, some of the affairs even leading to children. God instructs Hosea to continue to go after his wife and bring her back to him, much like God keeps doing with Israel.

While God promises not to forsake Israel as a whole, he also informs them that there will be repercussions for the way they have been living: the ancient kingdom of Assyria would come and basically wipe out Northern Israel.

I have been convicted this year of not spending enough time examining my heart and repenting when hard times come in my life. I love the beautiful passage in the the Gospel of John where Jesus heals a man born blind. The disciples ask Jesus, "Who sinned, this man, or his parents?" and Jesus informs them that the man was born blind not because of sin, but in order that God might be glorified through his forthcoming healing. This gives us much peace in knowing that not all bad things that happen to us are because of our sin.

But...some are. We don't talk about that in the church. We like easy teachings. We tend to discard the hard.

Now, I'm not going to the extreme and blaming every bad day on my sin. Once again, see the above passage in John, or even the book of Job. But I also don't want to operate under the assumption that hard circumstances are never God's way of trying to get my attention. That is a tool, and, quite frankly, a beautiful opportunity, that He often uses, and I don't want to miss it.

...and how does this relate to Squirrel?

Squirrel loves the bay window in our living room, perhaps a little too much. He uses it to terrorize the neighborhood and bark at any and all movement outside. When he does that, I call it, "Corporal Squirrel, reporting for guard duty!" He is perpetually on guard for anything passing by that might be a threat.

Or a small child just trying to get to school who about wets himself when Squirrel goes off. But I digress.

I want to be on guard for threats against my relationship with God in the same way Squirrel is on guard for threats. They are sneaky, they are insidious, and they can grow so slowly we miss them entirely.

Lord, truth be told, I don't know myself all that well. Please reveal the things in me that are hindering us from moving forward together.