Skunk

 March 7, 2022

If you come to our house tomorrow, you might want to wear your mask. No, it’s not about COVID; Emma tangled with a skunk. In reality, the mask will do you about as much good as it did to ward off the virus, but you’ll feel better about yourself, and you’ll send a message to those who care.

There was no hint of this intruder when I let Emma out at 6:00 this morning, but the pungent aroma filled the air as I opened the door to let her back in. She herself didn’t smell too bad…at first. It didn’t take long for the stench to kick in, despite two baths, the latter in a combination of Dawn dish soap and baking soda; a trick we learned from Nicole, who lives with Nate and Deb. Right now, Emma smells pretty good for a dog, but enough of the skunk oil must have gotten into the entry room to make it quite aromatic.

Years ago when Linda was growing up, her father ran over a skunk’s nest while mowing the field behind their house. He had read somewhere that if you hold a skunk by its tail, it can’t spray, so he started chasing his girls around the field holding a baby skunk by its tail. Apparently the skunk hadn’t read that part about not being able to spray when held by the tail, because it sprayed him right up his arm. They buried his clothes, and for weeks afterward, every time he took a shower, he smelled of skunk.

Believe it or not, there’s a lesson here, and it’s more than about skunks. The Bible says we are to bear the sweet aroma of Christ to the world around us. To some, it will seem the aroma of death, but to others, the fragrance of life:

“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life.” —II Corinthians 2:14-16 

It’s about impossible to escape the pungent odor of skunk, and likewise, the fragrance of expensive perfume is hard to miss. God intends us to be noticed in the world. Jesus told us not to hide our light under a basket, and St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians is saying much the same thing. If we are living as we ought, some will sniff and turn up their noses. A holy life is as repugnant to their souls as skunk is to our noses. Others will catch a whiff of the fragrance of Christ and be captivated by its beauty. The difference is in the olfactory, not the air. I imagine skunk smells pretty good to another skunk.

Emma is snoozing before the fire, almost aroma-free. The bath did its job. May the bath of the Holy Spirit washing his children clean produce a heavenly fragrance that sticks around like skunk, but smells like roses to those around us.