Late Friday evening I went out to the garage to look for a box and I heard a noise behind me – was it a squirrel or perhaps a bird?  I searched around but did not find anything.  The next morning as I went out to the garage I discovered what the noise was – a cat!  The distinctive smell of the cat marking his territory was in the air.  That day I opened up both garage doors and let my car air out.  I thought back to my college physics class on quantum mechanics and reflected on the classic conundrum known as Schrodinger’s cat – maybe (hopefully) he’s gone now. 

The following day the garage still smelled bad.  As we drove to church I was thinking, “Wow, it sure smells bad in this car.”  It wasn’t until we got to church Sunday morning that we realized that the cat had marked the backseat of my car as the poor person sitting in the back of my car discovered.  It could have been worse – one time I was picking up someone in my car only to discover a cat had vomited on the seat.  Apparently the cat had found a new home in my garage.  Desperate times car for desperate measures.  I took my fearless dog Peter out to the garage to find the intruder.  Peter boy immediately started barking and wanted to get behind some lumber I have in the garage.  As I pulled back the lumber there was a HUGE cat.  The cat went up in the rafters and Peter went crazy.  I took Peter out of the garage and started honking the horn.  The cat came down and I was able to chase him out of the garage!

Even though the cat was gone it was evident that he had been there.  I was thinking that the cat episode can be like sin in our lives.  I knew there was something in the garage that shouldn’t be there, but I didn’t take the effort to get rid of it.  Jesus makes it clear that the secret things come to light, "For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light” (Luke 8:17) – like the smell of a cat. 

The reality is that God knows about the “secret things” in your life.  Moses records in Psalm 90 “You have placed our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence.”  The terrible smell in my car can be like the stench of my sin before a holy and righteous God.  Solomon wisely concludes, “For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:14).  The lesson learned is to keep the cats out of your garage and sin out of your life.  I’ll be driving with my windows open for probably the next six months – sin always has consequences.