Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding; for her proceeds are better than the profits of silver, and her gain than fine gold. Proverbs 3:13-14 (NIV)
As the rays of the sun broke through the darkness, I opened my garage door and pushed my sizable garbage can to the street. To my left, a line of upright garbage cans and recycling bins lined the street.
But to the right, I saw a vastly different picture. Five huge garbage cans had been tossed onto sidewalks and lawns like a mini tornado hit. Scattered garbage and slit trash bags littered sidewalks and spilled over onto the street. A trail of debris went down both sides of my street.
On closer inspection, I saw a peanut butter jar and the remains of several meals. Down the street from those five homes, green cans stood like sentinels guarding the neighborhood.
Conservation areas cover large areas of my development and provide homes for many types of wildlife. From my yard, I can see a lot of animals like eagles, turkeys, deer, ducks, coyote, raccoons and bear. Most of them stay in their natural environment but not always.
There were two possible causes of the mess. Three raccoons played in my oak tree one day. Thankfully, cayenne pepper kept them from returning. The pesky critters can be destructive but would have trouble overturning our giant sized garbage cans.
The more plausible cause was a hungry bear or two. A bear could easily knock over the cans and rip open bags with their long claws. They rummage through garbage for tasty bits of food. With more and more trees destroyed, their habitat decreases and they resort to leftovers from human meals.
Our weekly newsletter reminds residents to put garbage out in the morning to prevent bears from venturing onto our streets and into the trash. However, not everyone obeys the warning.
For a long time, nothing happened on my street so people continued to ignore the danger. One day that changed. Then there were consequences. Fortunately, no one was hurt, there was no permanent damage and the messes were cleaned up.
Often we experience internal or external warnings about certain attitudes or behaviors. As long as nothing significant happens, we continue. Then one day that changes. We reflect and wonder why we didn’t heed the warnings. We then face unwelcome and perhaps disastrous consequences. That may be the only way we learn and change.
Father, we often ignore warning signs and get ourselves into trouble. We need help listening and obeying. Thank you for not always giving us what we deserve. A
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