(*repeat) STORMS COME in different forms. They can be rain, wind, snow, hurricanes, tornadoes and even a tsunami. They can also be events that cause major distress, such as a death of a loved one, or loss of a job. Circumstances beyond our control can not only cause mental, emotional, but also physical discomfort. All familys experience a variety of storms, but the one I want to talk about is unusual, to say the least.
IN 82 Danny left for Boise Bible college. In September of 83 Jennifer left for the same college. My brother had begun an extensive renovation of his home to accommodate my mother who was in the difficult stages of Alzheimer. She was coming to spend the holidays with us, and Jennifer was coming home for Thanksgiving.
ONE SUNDAY evening we pulled into the driveway! Living in the country, it was not unusual to see skunks but this time the skunk was tripping along side our house and disappeared through a 1' square opening just under the south end of our home. We both saw it and immediately Jim said; “I think we have trouble”! That was not even the half of it! With the Thanksgiving holiday just ahead, we prayed that our visitor was just passing through and had no plans to stay.
THE FOLLOWING Tuesday we left for Idaho to pick up Jennifer from school, and my mother who had been staying with my sister Jeri. A couple of nights after Thanksgiving we went to bed as usual. This night was to be the last night we went to bed with sugar plums dancing in our heads, for a very long time. Around 2 or 3 am we were awakened with a strange scratching sound in the heating vents under our manufactured home. Immediately, our lives changed as fear and troubled hearts entered our lives. Jim got dressed, and I headed towards the bathroom! A nightmare of a storm began and lasted until after spring break the following year.
WE NOT ONLY battled the difficulties of caring for my mother but standing as sentinels with gun in hand, briquet fires aglow, to smoke out the enemy, and many sleepless nights. We cleaned the house many times from top to bottom, after being skunked seven times. Eventually my mother went home and Jim won the battle of “Skunk Ridge in Sam’s Valley” while being outnumbered 14 to 1. With gun in hand, Jim led the final charge and ended the life of the last invader. The final battle was under the north end of our home, and it was then that our embattled home front, became quiet!
DURING OUR TIME of trouble Jim was unusually quiet. You could say it was our winter of discontent. But he was strong! He did what he could! His mind and his strength was on the adversary and not on me. Our home had literally been turned upside down! Every time we heard that scratching sound I had to head to the bathroom, while Jim dressed! I spent my nights watching my mother wandering throughout the house, and listening for sounds of the enemy. The siege of the skunks was almost more than we could bear! We carried the noticeable skunk perfume for months, and until we found a cleansing product to scour our home with, we could hardly stand one another.
“I WOULD hasten to my place of refuge. From the stormy wind and tempest.” Psalms 55:8 That is what I did! I would try to be calm on the outside but inside God was my refuge. “The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life. Whom shall I dread?” Psalm 27:1-3 This is where Jim found his strength and peace! We both learned to trust God when the evildoers tried to destroy us, and when the adversaries caused us to stumble and fall. It encouraged us, so that even if the host come upon us, and in spite of war all around, we still had confidence. Yes, we battled a storm which left it scars for a while, but with Christ as our captain, we won the prize of endurance.
By Jane Ann Crenshaw 2/8/14 (*2/2/08)
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