Under the Deck

On the back of my house, I have a deck. It's not a big deck, but it's not a small deck either. I call it my Goldilocks deck ... it's just the right size for me. It's got lattice work around the sides and slats across the top; in fact, I think those slats are what protected my grill and glass-top table from being pulverized in the hail storm we had about a month ago. And by the way, my new roof and repaired windows, guttering and paint look really good ... according to my oldest son and my brother, I should now sell the house and move into an apartment (because they think I'm too old and not well enough to take care of all the maintenance ... blah, blah, blah). But, once again, I digress from the story at hand. The bottom part of the deck is covered in lattice as well, with small openings where the lattice criss-crosses ... and that is where this story begins.

Sometimes, little critters get under the deck ... I've seen rabbits, mice (yuck, yuck, and yuck), frogs, and even a baby raccoon scamper out from the safety of the wooden covering. My big dog Julie is a Labrador retriever, and if you know anything about Labs, you know they are hunters by nature. So suffice it to say that Julie knows when there's a critter under the deck, and she almost gives herself a heart attack running from side to side with her nose crammed in between the small openings in the lattice.

Last Sunday afternoon, Julie, Ollie and I were dozing on the couch when all of a sudden, Julie jumped down, ears laid back against her head, crying and bolting down the hall toward my room. By the time I got off the couch and went to check on her, she had wet on my carpet and was cowering in the corner whimpering. Julie never ever has an accident in the house, so I knew that something was wrong. I took her outside to potty, and she immediately jumped the fence and took off down the street. Thankfully, one of my neighbors was outside and grabbed her collar and held her until I got to her. For the rest of the day, Julie was ... well ... she was just upset. She cried and whined and climbed all over me, and she went crazy sniffing around the deck when we went outside. It was a couple of days before she calmed down and started acting normal again.

Here's the thing ... I am sure that there was some sort of "critter event" in my back yard last Sunday afternoon. I don't know what it was, whether an animal got hurt and crawled under my deck or whether some babies were born under there ... I have no clue. But I know that whatever happened, Julie heard it while we were snoozing on the couch. She knew that something was going on outside ... she knew there was something happening under the deck ... she knew even though I didn't hear or see anything.

I've thought about Julie's behavior all week, and about how she knows things are hiding under the deck when no one else does ... about how she hears sounds and cries that I can never hear. And I've thought about how God knows what I try to hide away under the deck of my life when no one else does. And I've thought about how He hears the sounds of my soul and the cries of my heart as only He can.

One of these days, I should probably figure out a way to clean out the stuff under the deck behind my house ... I'm sure it could use a good scrubbing under there. Come to think of it ... God ... since You're the only One who knows what's under the deck of my life, maybe You could clean out all the stuff that needs to go ... it's a mess.