Drover was clearly pleased with his prize. He stood over it, tongue lolling and tail wagging. The man looked on in disgust. He was not happy with what Drover had dragged into his yard. Drover’s trophy was the foul-smelling, rotting carcass of some creature that had met its end several days before. Oblivious to the man’s distaste, Drover rolled on the carcass, squirming this way and that, drooling at the rotten odor, and savoring the feel of the decomposed flesh against his fur. The man turned away. He would deal with the carrion later, or perhaps Drover would take his treasure away and bury it. But as he went about his work, he thought about what he had seen. He had heard that the worse something smells to a human, the better it smells to a dog.  

Would it also be true, he wondered, to say that the better something smells to humanity, the worse it smells to God? He thought of what Jesus once told the Pharisees: “That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15). Do we sometimes treasure the very things God detests? The man made a mental list of things men love: money, power, influence, prestige, recognition, pleasure, indulgence, and ease.  

Oh, how sad it would be for God to turn away from us in disgust as we wallow deliciously in the rotting carcass of worldly pleasure.  

“Father, help me love what you love and hate what you hate.” 

Adam’s child by smut defiled, by sin enslaved, through Christ is saved. 

From Paws on My Porch, by Gary Miller  
© 2015 TGS International, PO Box 355, Berlin, Ohio 44610 
Used by permission