That Thing You Value So Highly
When my mother-in-law sold her wooded 72 acres in Kila, Montana, one of our tasks was to clean out the garage and pack everything.
But the garage had become home to a few pack rats.
Bile just rose in my throat. Have you ever experienced pack rats? The huge nests they build out of everything they can find? The trail of slimy I-don’t-know-what that they leave everywhere?
Just thinking about it raises the memory of the smell in my mind, and I have a sudden desire to go stick my face in a bag of coffee beans and inhale deeply.
Pack rats are so gross.
Even my Montana-grown husband gets a withering look on his face at the mention of pack rats.
Isaiah tells us,
“The Lord Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty. In that day men will throw away to the rodents…their idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made to worship.” (Isaiah 2:12,20 NIV)
(Pack rats are particularly known for liking things that are shiny.)
This morning, as I was reading this passage in Isaiah, I asked the Lord to please show me if there is any shiny object I’m worshiping that would be pitched to the rats if I could see it in comparison to the majesty of his splendor.
What do you hold valuable that is only worthy of a rat’s nest when compared to the worth of God?
This is by far one my most favorite blogs yet. My senses were certainly aroused, but more than that my heart was searching for things only a pack rat would love. Things that need to go!
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could purge our lives of every single idol, so God would have nothing to throw to the rats? May he show us those hidden idols we are unaware of.
I enjoy reading your blog every day, but todays hit home. Thank you so much.
Thank you for the encouragement. And I pray God will help you purge your life of any shiny things that need to be tossed to the rats!