Squirrel!!!!!!

"Squirrel!!!! " Have you ever seen the movie,"Christmas Vacation"? You know, the Chevy Chase movie (the TV version is pretty cleaned-up and a Christmas-time favorite of mine.)...anyway, everything goes wrong at Christmas and in a fit of sheer frustration Chevy cuts down a tree from his front yard and puts it in the living room where...A guest sees a live squirrel in the tree and yells, "Squirrel!!!" Everyone panics, it a ends up jumping out and landing on Chevy's back...he runs all over the house,with the squirrel attached. I'm embarrassed to admit but I laugh until I almost cry at that scene- at how absurd and hilarious it is every single time I see it. So...this week I had my one and only (at least I hope) chance to yell, "Squirrel!!!! "

Wednesday morning 1a.m. I awoke to the sound of scratching, got up and looked behind my dresser,at the source of the scratching...yes, it was a squirrel. All I could yell was, "JOHN!!!!!" at the top of my lungs! Man, what a missed opportunity! Anyway, what could we do at 1 in the morning? Not much, after it ran over my foot and into the closet...well, I slept on the couch and John... he stuck it out in the bedroom. So I had a squirrel in my closet.

You must understand I live in a close to 100 year old home with not much storage space besides the basement and yes, you guessed it, the closet. I have been meaning to clean the closet in my bedroom for the last...well, you can imagine. After my lovely experience on Wednesday, I figured there was no better time than now and frankly, a squirrel just isn't acceptable in the closet. So,I went to work...you know the saying, "it has to get worse before it gets better?" Well, that is very true in the Cornett closet. It was horrible.

After 6 bags of goodwill and 4 bags of garbage (give me a break, it is a big closet!) Still no squirrel. I know that is a good thing. I figured out he came in the window and then must have exited...at least that makes me feel better. :) Here is my point, yes I have one.

The squirrel was the catalyst to fix a long-term problem that needed fixing...the closet. I've put that off, longer than I want to admit. Isn't that so true of how our lives so often look spiritually? You see, I got pretty good at ignoring the problem of the closet because I just keep the doors shut! Until the squirrel ran in...then I COULDN'T ignore it any longer...sometimes the Lord allows squirrels to "run into the closet" of our lives...places we have gotten rather comfortable keeping shut off and closed. While the Lord, He wants to clean it out and up...make it truly usable space. Get it?

I'm getting smacked right now, in my life... with yes, my real closet but also some heart issues that are requiring cleaning up, and I want to just shut the door...thus the spiritual squirrel. Praise the Lord for your squirrel...maybe they are suppose to get in so that He can do the cleaning? Trust Him. Whatever your hidden mess, it isn't too messy and overwhelming for Him. He wants and designs to make every area of our lives usuable...for Him and His purposes. Do the squirrel's freak us out? Duh! Ya....BUT He can take care and use it all!