A couple of weeks ago, we began to go through my Granny's house and sort through the seemingly endless accumulation of items that she has obtained throughout the years. It's a hard thing to do once someone you love passes away, but it has to be done. You see things that you envision her using or holding in her hands. You touch things that her hands also touched and memories come flooding back. My fondest memories of my Granny revolved around the kitchen;I remember the many cakes she would bake and I remember my sister and I sitting on the bar stools in the kitchen waiting for her to place the last morsel of icing on whatever cake she had made. We knew whatever was left over, we would get. When she decorated using icing bags, she would squirt a dab of icing on each of our fingers and we would lick it off. Other memories include watching her use a big bowl full of flour and pat out her biscuits by hand over that bowl, that still sat in the kitchen cabinet. I watched her fry up squash, chicken, and any other edible delicacy that could be battered and fried up in a pan. She loved to cook. She was one of the best cooks I know. I lived to eat her food. Every birthday I had chicken and dumplings and some sort of dessert; maybe a chocolate pound cake, maybe a chocolate dream, but always something. So on the night we cleaned out her kitchen, my heart filled itself up with memories of her. I almost expected the scents and aromas of her kitchen to come wafting through as we went through it.
On this particular night, as we pulled things from each cabinet, I began to notice a theme. Where there was one of something, there was four or five just like it. The one example that we laughed most at was the sheer number of graters she had in her cabinets. I would bet there were at least 7 to 10 graters; some exactly the same, some small, some large, but nonetheless, ALL graters. Seriously, who needs this many graters? If you have more than one of something can you really appreciate them all? You cannot use them simultaneously. You can't love and appreciate any of them because of the quantity of them all. Needless to say, the cabinets were a little cluttered with things I'm sure she didn't even realize she had. Those little gems become lost among the clutter of the cabinets, until you forget it's worth.
Similarly, I think of Camdyn's toys. She has accumulated quite the stock pile. There are some I'm sure she doesn't even realize are there. Why? Again, because of the clutter of them all. She cannot appreciate them individually because they are so numerous. There are so many instances of things we own or things we have in our possession that we can't remember exist or cannot appreciate because of all of the clutter.
What are our lives cluttered with? Chores, jobs, material possessions, sinful nature, music, movies, TV, people, running here and there, cell phones, text messages, social media, drama, turmoil, regret...you name it, we are surrounded by it. The clutter keeps building and building until we no longer appreciate the little things, the things that matter most of all. The clutter begins to cover up the still small things that make life what it is. The clutter ends up looking like an episode of hoarders, except that it's not our homes that end up looking like a tornado rolled through, but our hearts. Our hearts become a jumbled mess of a maze. We are so busy sifting through all the "junk" life hands us, that it becomes harder and harder to clear out a spot for God, our walk with him, prayer, bible study....
Like my Granny's cabinets, I find my heart holding quite a bit of clutter sometimes. I know it's this clutter that prevents me from being the Christian I need to be and want to be. It's time to clean up. Time to reorganize the mess and put it back up on a shelf somewhere. Maybe it's time to take some stuff to the landfill. Some of it needs to be void from my life. Out with the old and in with the new!
On this particular night, as we pulled things from each cabinet, I began to notice a theme. Where there was one of something, there was four or five just like it. The one example that we laughed most at was the sheer number of graters she had in her cabinets. I would bet there were at least 7 to 10 graters; some exactly the same, some small, some large, but nonetheless, ALL graters. Seriously, who needs this many graters? If you have more than one of something can you really appreciate them all? You cannot use them simultaneously. You can't love and appreciate any of them because of the quantity of them all. Needless to say, the cabinets were a little cluttered with things I'm sure she didn't even realize she had. Those little gems become lost among the clutter of the cabinets, until you forget it's worth.
Similarly, I think of Camdyn's toys. She has accumulated quite the stock pile. There are some I'm sure she doesn't even realize are there. Why? Again, because of the clutter of them all. She cannot appreciate them individually because they are so numerous. There are so many instances of things we own or things we have in our possession that we can't remember exist or cannot appreciate because of all of the clutter.
What are our lives cluttered with? Chores, jobs, material possessions, sinful nature, music, movies, TV, people, running here and there, cell phones, text messages, social media, drama, turmoil, regret...you name it, we are surrounded by it. The clutter keeps building and building until we no longer appreciate the little things, the things that matter most of all. The clutter begins to cover up the still small things that make life what it is. The clutter ends up looking like an episode of hoarders, except that it's not our homes that end up looking like a tornado rolled through, but our hearts. Our hearts become a jumbled mess of a maze. We are so busy sifting through all the "junk" life hands us, that it becomes harder and harder to clear out a spot for God, our walk with him, prayer, bible study....
Like my Granny's cabinets, I find my heart holding quite a bit of clutter sometimes. I know it's this clutter that prevents me from being the Christian I need to be and want to be. It's time to clean up. Time to reorganize the mess and put it back up on a shelf somewhere. Maybe it's time to take some stuff to the landfill. Some of it needs to be void from my life. Out with the old and in with the new!