Heat Index 110F

So, the past two days have had a Heat Index of 110F. I worked both of them. I don't want to whine, so that's all I'll say. Oh, except we did have a fan both days. Speaking of whining, in church on Sunday one of the elders asked us, "What's the difference between a farmer, and a puppy?" Remember, I live in a farming community. Okay, here it is. "The puppy will eventually learn to stop whining! "We all got a kick out of that. I went to the doctor for a physical examination yesterday, to make sure I wasn't going to die in college. All seems to have gone well, and tomorrow (Wed) I go back in to make sure I don't have tuberculosis. Fun fun fun!



I've been reading devotionally in Leviticus, all about the law. (Hey, quiet in the peanut gallery!) The law places quite a lot of emphasis on 'clean' and 'unclean' before God. This is both cleanness of the body, and cleanness of the heart.

As Dad and I were driving home from work a couple days ago, we turned onto a road behind a Bausback Rendering truck. For those of you who don't live in farm communities, you may not be familiar with this kind of truck.It is a big, green, farm-style truck. Not like a pickup, or even a full-sized truck. It's the Big One, designed to haul large amounts of stuff. In the large, tall bed of this particular kind of truck they carry just one thing. Dead animals.You see, in farming communities, animals die. We don't particularly want them to, because that lowers the profit margin. But, they do anyway, jerks.

Each farm has a 'drop-box' located somewhere by a roadway. Inside this 2x4 enclosed square the dead pigs, cows, and other bodies are put. The green truck comes along, picks up the dead animals, and takes them back to the plant to be rendered.

Anyway, Dad and I turn onto the road behind this truck. We can see pig legs sticking above the truckbed walls. And, it being summer in a A/Cless van, we have the windows down.

The most terrible stench immediately assails us. The dead, rotting animals stink sooooo bad. And we're stuck. We have to go the same direction as this truck. There is no escape.

My mind goes back to what I've been reading in Leviticus. Uncleanness. This stench that enveloped me, is what we smell like to God. Under the old Law, it required the sweet smell of sacrifice to cover up the stench of our sin. Under Jesus' covenant, the purpose of the Law, His sacrifice covers up our stench.

Trying to imagine being in among those rotting carcasses, I was again shocked that Jesus came to earth. He chose to live among dead, rotting stench, because He loved what He had created it to be originally. And He restores us from dead and gone, to alive and here. Amazing.

In His Time,