Out of the Garden, Onto
the Curb October
25, 2014
I’m
a clutter bug. As a gardener, writer, crafter,
reader, seamstress and quilter I accumulate little piles of things here and
there until they take on a life of their own, moving silently when my back’s
turned. Books mysteriously sneak underneath
a stack of quilting squares; I find garden catalog pages stuck in with the
bills on my desk.
Honestly
I do a pretty good job of keeping up with it all… at least, if you come over
for a cup of coffee there are empty chairs for nestling (sigh.) Nonetheless, I recently came to the
conclusion that additional shelving and organization is required out in my
sewing room. Off to Lowes!
They
actually have an entire section in Lowes called ‘home organization.’ Amazing.
I found the shelves that match those I currently have, thinking I would
simply add two more sets to extend capacity for fabric, beads, song books,
etc. Yikes! Shelves that once cost $35 were now almost
$80—definitely not an option with my Saturday pocketbook after the bills have
been paid.
“You’re
not getting them?” my husband asked.
“Nope. I’ll wait until God puts
them on sale or shows me something better,” I replied. (In my experience good things really do come
to those who wait.)
A
day later after church my honey left the house to run some errands. Within five minutes he was back. “Come on, get on the car, there’s something I
want to show you,” he said.
A
quarter mile down the street a couple was dragging old things out of their
house and piling them on the curb for the trash men to take away. Standing sturdily among the heap was an old,
large, heavy dresser with six big and forlorn-looking drawers stacked
nearby. It had once been covered with a
blond veneer (a ‘50s favorite) that had been stripped away from all but two of
the drawers.
I
could see that with good cleaning and a little paint (actually $38 for paint,
new knobs and a little sandpaper) the dresser could be transformed “Can I buy
this from you?” I asked the man. “No,
please, just take it away,” he replied.
Several
weeks later I’m happy to report that at least one area of the sewing room is
now clutter free, fabric having been sorted and stored in my ‘new’ clean white
dresser. Yay!
How
like the human condition… we once enjoyed the pleasures and safety of the
Garden, so sure of Divine acceptance that we didn’t even ponder God’s love. Along comes sin, and stripped of our veneer,
we are tossed out of the Garden onto to the curbside, presumably at the end of
any purpose or value.
We
are rescued, cleaned up and given a new purpose and divine value—but here ends the
analogy between my dresser and our lives.
In the reality of God’s kingdom on earth today, we are far more than
just “cleaned up.” Through the
in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit we are transformed, made brand new and shown the
truth about our place in God’s eternal life!
We are given a revelation of God within us, and the peace that we are
within Him, too, through Christ. At last
we can understand “the
mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now
disclosed to the Lord’s people. To them God has chosen
to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is
Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
(Colossians 1: 26 and
27)
