Chipmunk, part 3

As of Friday, two chipmunks were caught in the traps. One was inside the garage. I’m sure he was the culprit we were after, the one who chewed a new hole in the wall after I patched the old one. The one who did a number on my door sweep. The guilty one.

The other was found in the trap outside. I suspect that chipmunk was innocent of all this, in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sadly, he’s just as dead.

Why didn’t I just humanely trap and relocate the animal? Because the Condo association has contracted people for this problem, and I assumed that they would be humane. By the time I discovered I was wrong, I just wanted it over. And so, two chipmunks are dead.

***

Most of us have been conditioned since childhood to expect, on some level, to pay for our sins and misdeeds. There are always consequences. Ask the first chipmunk.

But the truth is that we are often caught up in the punishment of other people’s sins. Just read the news: innocents often share the fate of the wicked. That’s what happened to the second chipmunk.

So, what do we do with the unfairness? The Bible gives us instruction in how to handle it.

For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering
because they are conscious of God. 
But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating
for doing wrong and endure it?
But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it,
this is commendable before God. 
To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, 
leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

“He committed no sin,
    and no deceit was found in his mouth.”

When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate;
when he suffered, he made no threats. 
Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 
“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, 
so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness;
“by his wounds you have been healed.”
1 Peter 2:19-24 NIV

So, we go forward in faith, knowing all will eventually be made right, because Jesus said,

“I have told you these things,
so that in me you may have peace. 
In this world you will have trouble. 
But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33 NIV