could you hear me?

Monday, January 23, 2006

Skunk and God

As everyone knows the story of Creation, out of all the animals that God created, there is one animal which Adam named "skunk". I don't know why this animal is called "skunk" but there is a story behind it.

The skunk belongs to a family which is similar to the squirrel's. It is created with a defensive mechanism in its body which is the spraying of a type of oil that is very foul and is not easily removeable. This mechanism, though powerful, it can only use a few times, as such, it is valued an important weapon by the skunk. And also because of this, the skunk will not use it as and when it likes but only when all the warnings that it gives went unheeded in a dangerous situation will it then release the defense mechanism.

This mechanism, then, through it's foul characteristic, became well-known throughout the animal kingdom and is often associated with the skunk. As such, the skunk became infamous. Everyone became scared of the skunk cause of this stinky mechanism and feared that they got sprayed by it too. Thus the skunk was avoided by all and the skunk became lonely and sorrow overwhelmed it.

One day, as the skunk sat by the river, it looked up into the clear blue sky with tears welled up in its eyes and said, "Why Father? Why do I have this useless evil-smelling thing in me? No one loves me because of this." Nearby, a fox heard it and replied with a snicker, "Well then, if you don't like it then don't use it! And animals like me will love you!" With that, he pounced onto the skunk. But instinct told the skunk that he had to use the defensive mechanism that God gave him and he squirted the foul-smelling oil onto the fox's face. The fox howled in agony and anger as the nasty smell attacked his nose and respiratory system and he ran away.

Seeing this, the skunk returned to face the sky and a voice from above said to him, "My dear skunk, it is I who made you. And even though you have some misunderstanding there, but do know that I love you for who you are. And I say that you are made by me and it is good. And I love all my creations and you are one of them. The mechanism that I gave you is not useless and it is my gift for you. Use it wisely. And remember, even if the world hates you, I love you." With this, the skunk felt really loved for the first time in his life.


Ok ok, it's a fictional story and it's not nicely written. Sorry but I'm not a good storyteller. But seriously.. I think I love being skunk because of this story too. For the skunk knows how much God loves him.

Now time to talk abt last week's cell.. There's just a few things that I've learnt or recapped. Firtly, I'm just so glad that God made me as who I am. With all those past experiences, all those hurts and memories, I've grown. And I've realised that innocence is a great gift that God has given to all of us when we were young. Cause we see things differently when we were younger than when we have grown and acquired worldly knowledge.

Also during cell, I sort of recapped that we are not to expect friends to be more like us but love them for who they are. This has always been my belief ever since ages ago. Lol! But somehow, the phrase "Treat others like how you want to be treated and the favour will be returned" has been ringing in my head. Maybe cause I wanted to be loved, I go on and love blindly. But that is good right? Cause Jesus also came down and to show us the greatest love even though we may/will hurt Him.

I also recapped that God is the only one who has experienced absolute loneliness, the idea from the previous cell meeting.

And I've learnt that temptations are here to test us and our character, to make us grow, to mold us into better people and repeated temptings is to ensure a certainty to our character. And although temptation has this result, do not we must not let ourselves to be tempted as it will mean that we are independent of God.

Wow.. 4 lessons. Heh.. Am so lookin forward to the next cell. =)
Ruth-Skunk || 1:05 pm