Pensamientos para hoy (afterthought for today)
Rats in the Rafters
Yesterday (Valentine's Day, 2008) my neighbor had the exterminators at his house for the second time this month. They were working around the eaves, soffits, rain gutters, and roof trying to close openings that animals had made to get into his house. I went over to talk to him, and he told me that mice or rats were getting in the house and crawling around in the rafters. Last year he had a problem with squirrels. As we talked, one of the workers brought us over to the back of his truck. "This one tore open the siding on a woman's house and got into the attic." He opened the back of his truck to show us a small raccoon he'd captured in a trap. My neighbor is an accountant who works in an office he set up in his attic; so when the squirrels and mice get into the rafters he can hear them. "Once they get in they mark their territory," my neighbor told me. "And even if we catch it, others will find their way in because they follow the scent. The noise they make gets on my nerves and I can't work." The Bible talks about little animals that creep into our lives. King Solomon wrote a love poem in which his lover says to him: "Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that are ruining the vineyards while our vineyards are in blossom (Song of Solomon 2:15)."1 The vineyards "in blossom" refer to the sweet love of romance that a man should have for his wife. The "little foxes that are spoiling the vineyards" are the problems that can creep into a marriage and cause havoc. These problems usually start out as small but can bring much turmoil to an otherwise happy marriage. One commentator has noticed that it's the wife who first notices "the little foxes that are ruining the vineyards", but it's the man who has the responsibility to "catch the foxes."2 Men, the point of this part of the love poem is to tell us that as the man of the house we need to pay attention to our wives and listen to them. They may be the ones to first notice the rats that are trying to creep into our lives and ruin our families, but once we are made aware of these pesky vermin, we need to do whatever it takes to get rid of them. So unless you've got bats in your belfries, I suggest you listen to your wife and make your love relationship a priority. Like my neighbor who works in the attic and so can't ignore the rats running around in the rafters you need to stay close enough to your wife so that when little problems creep into your marriage you can't ignore them. Keeping the garden of my love life fresh and clean, Pastor Steve February 14, 2008Footnotes1 Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations taken from the NASB (New American Standard Bible). 2Thomas L. Constable, Notes on the Song of Solomon, 2007 Edition [Digital Copy, PDF, webpage] available at: http://www.soniclight.com/constable/notes/pdf/song.pdf. www.soniclight.com Internet accessed on February 15, 2008.
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