Don't Mess With Dead Things

Abigail and Dolley readers we got two kittens at Thanksgiving.  Little balls of fur barely 6 weeks old, uncared for, and ready for a nice warm and loving home.  What a joy they have been to our family!  They are mighty little hunters and remind me of the Raptors in Jurassic Park; they hunt as a team.  There is no wildlife on our back deck; no wood bees, no lizards, and no moles in the natural area.  Just about everyday, I go out on the patio and there is something dead out there.

Sox and Jinx

Today was no different, a vole was waiting for me.  I was praying and exercising back there, so I got a shovel and flung it in the natural area.  As I worked out, the kittens were playing in the area and I remembered a horrible story my sister told of her dogs getting violently ill from playing with a dead animal.  This seemed to me a prompting to bury that mole.

As I walked over to the carcass, I scolded one of the cats, "Don't mess with dead things!"  It hit me like a lightening bolt, "Neither should you..." the voice said.

Don't mess with dead things... I began to ponder.  With a memory that is tremendous, it is entirely possible that I mess with dead things.  Dead relationships, dead opportunities, dead sin, dead circumstances - just plain dead.  Dead things have no redeeming value, they don't edify, they don't teach, they don't do anything other than stink.

We are not called to have amnesia and if we do not remember we are destined to repeat, but lessons are not dead things.  Wisdom gained through struggle and hard times is not dead, what is dead are the mistakes that took you down those dark roads.  The people that hurt you, mistreated you, and did you wrong - they are among the dead.  Leave that garbage alone, recall it no more, do not allow the dead things in your life to pollute the air around you.

What are the dead things you have in your life?  Identify them and let them go, because you too should not mess with dead things!