I have to give a testimony to glorify the Lord for how he provided a skunk for my assistant Cristina and me this morning. A skunk? Who wants a skunk for a testimony?
Let me back up a few weeks. I was talking to a friend in Peru, telling her about the program for this coming year about spreading the fragrance of Christ. She told me her husband, a former pastor in Tarma, my favorite town in Peru, compares those who don’t watch what comes out of their mouth to skunks, “zorrillo” in Spanish.
We should be a fragrance to God, an aroma of Christ. I thought a comparison between the foul odor of a skunk and the fragrance of a flower would help children understand the difference between good speech and good behavior and foul speech and bad behavior.
Since the illustrator for my stories died last August we have had a hard time finding illustrations. Cristina does her best to modify what we have. She doesn’t like to mix his pictures with her style. This morning while talking about this week’s story I asked her to draw a skunk. She said she wasn’t happy about doing it because it would be a different style. We settled on maybe putting half a skunk. I wanted a picture of one of the boys thinking about being like a skunk or a flower.
As we are talking she is looking through the archives of pictures Absalom left us. Low and behold! She found a skunk! And a cute one!
The skunk was incorporated in a picture of the animals Adam named in the Garden of Eden. You know that Adam named all the animals, don’t you?
“The Lord is with us!” I told Cristina. When Absalom was drawing that picture God knew we would need a skunk, so he inspired him to draw one. That’s what I think. And that is my testimony! The Lord knows every detail of our lives and he will even provide a picture of a skunk!
Are you having a good start of the year? I hope so! I had some sad news this morning, not for the person affected but for me and those close to her. Pat Ford, a pastor friend from years back when I lived in Springfield and came to visit my daughter in Fort Gibson. She was very kind and I loved the way she pronounced my name in Spanish: Margarita. Now she can enjoy eternity with Jesus and she will have to wait until I get there to call me Margarita again. How I will miss her!
Here I am in a Margarita-flower (Daisy). My main page is hermanamargarita.com. My assistant Cristina’s uncle Cesar drew this picture of me. In his youth he used to illustrate my stories.
To stir up one another to love and good works, that’s what I want to do. That’s what I want to inspire the children and the teachers to do. I hope the skunk illustration will help us all to reflect. Is our life a pleasant aroma or does any of our behavior smell like skunk?
Blessings!
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