When I was young, my aunt had a well in her backyard. It was the kind you have to lower a bucket down into and draw up the water. She built a shed over it connecting it to the house, then she closed it in with tin siding. She stored a few things in there like firewood, gardening tools, and miscellaneous things she didn’t want in the house. She left the ground for the floor and eventually, the grass all died and it was a dirt floor.
One day, I noticed several large holes in the ground behind the kitchen. They were tunnels leading under the house. There were big piles of dirt in front of them where something big had been digging. I asked my aunt what it was and she said it was Gopher Rat holes. Then, my uncle said the rats were so big that he had to use a stick of firewood to kill them.
My aunt had several cats and dogs over the years with weird names. She had a cat named Blackie, and one named Brownie, because of their color. She had a cat named Tom because he was a Tomcat, and a dog named Snowball because he was white and fluffy.
There was a rectangular hole in the floor under the kitchen sink where the big drain pipe ran under the floor. It was big enough for the cats to climb through, so my aunt put a piece of wood there like a ramp to make it easier for the cats to come in and go out of the house. Her cats were not the only thing that could come through the hole, and they weren’t the only things that did.
One day, we were at her house and she went into the kitchen for something. All of a sudden, we heard an awful commotion and she started yelling. Of course, we all ran to see what was going on. There on the floor by the stove and the back door was a big, long, black snake and it was squirming all over the floor trying to get away from the broom she was hitting it with. For some reason, I don’t remember if she killed it or if it got away, probably because we ran out of there.
I also found a baby mouse there one time by that stove behind the door. It didn’t have any hair and it was so cute, but knowing what they grow up to become, my grandmother wouldn’t let me keep it. She told me to put it back where I got it because the mother was probably looking for it.
My aunt told us about another time she went into the kitchen and found an uninvited guest. She said she got up one morning and went to make coffee and found a bobcat sitting there eating her cat’s food. Of course, he ran back under the sink and escaped through the hole her cats went in and out of. She said he came in several times. I wanted her to catch it so I could have it as a pet, but she said, “That thing’s wild. It’ll tear you all to pieces.” She said she prepared some hot water to dash on the bobcat one morning, so he would stop coming in and eating her cat’s food, and after she did that, it never came back again. I thought that was mean of her, but I think it can be a good spiritual lesson.
Sometimes sin sneaks into our lives. But, we don’t always recognize it as sin because we've let our guard down. Sin is often disguised as something other than what it truly is. Sometimes, it keeps coming back again and again. Maybe we need to dash some hot water on it and get it out of our lives for good.
The Bible says that God is able to keep us from sinning (Jude 1:24). We need that close, personal relationship with Jesus, and the Holy Spirit living in our minds to lead, and guide us. Staying in constant contact with God is a very important part of that relationship (1 Thessalonians 5:17). That includes listening as well as talking. It’s a relationship between created human beings and our loving Creator. What a beautiful relationship.
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