I’ve been following the blogs of various Christian writers and agents. I read a great post from new author, Sarah Sundin, yesterday. Her first novel, A Distant Melody, a historical romance set in World War II, will be published by Revell in January 2010, the first in the Wings of Glory Series.
She wrote about cleaning her freezer. We writers can get ideas in the wackiest of places! But she made a great connection between mucking out the freezer and keeping tabs on what is festering in our ‘devout’ souls, based on Jesus’ words in Matthew 23:27-28: “‘Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.'”
This reminded me of a line from an annoying credit card commercial: “What’s in YOUR wallet?” Except it came out as, “What’s in YOUR freezer?”
I’m not sure what God is trying to teach me about my soul… I may have to think and pray on that. But I have a funny story about my freezer. Okay, my husband doesn’t think it is so funny.
I used to work as a park naturalist. I led guided hikes, organized campfire programs, coordinated field trips, etc. I’ve always been fascinated with God’s animal creations — from the tiniest insects to the largest mammals.
One day when my husband came home from work, I met him at the door.
“Um, Hi! If you go to the freezer for anything… Well, be careful.”
He gave me a wary look, as you can imagine.
“Careful about what?”
“I found a GREAT specimen today. I’m going to have it freeze-dried for work.”
“O-kaaaay… What is it?”
“Well, let’s just say… Avoid the back corner of the freezer until I can get it out.”
By this time, he was getting pretty nervous. “What is in the freezer?”
I shuffled my feet and looked at the floor. “I put it in a freezer bag. And I marked it, so no one would accidentally try to cook it.”
“WHAT IS IN THE FREEZER???”
He wasn’t too pleased when I admitted to my find. It was a brown bat (dead, of course).
In my defense, it was in beautiful condition and double-wrapped in freezer bags. It stayed there for several months as I looked for someone who would agree to preserve it for me. I didn’t have any luck, for some odd reason. It finally got tossed and our freezer has been bat-free for many years now.
Doesn’t that make you want to come to my house for dinner?
So, the question is… what’s in YOUR freezer?
How funny! At least I didn’t find any wildlife in my freezer. Thanks for the great link, and I love how you ran with my theme 🙂
Sarah — Phew! I’m a little relieved. After posting this, I had second thoughts. I probably should have asked your permission instead of just running with it! My bad. But, I’m glad you liked it. I apologize for not asking you first!
No need to apologize. Mutual publicity is a good thing 🙂
I have a lot of dead fish in my freezer. What can I say, we do a lot of fishing. My mom on the other hand has a frozen humming bird in her freezer. No, she’s not a naturalist like you. It was just so beautiful she couldn’t stand to throw it away or bury it. Yeah, writer’s moms are strange too.
I’m glad I haven’t found any dead hummingbirds. I can see myself being tempted by that and I’m sure my husband is glad our freezer is currently free of any wildlife.