Of Couches and Tables; Birds and Flowers

The other day I looked around my house and realized that every single piece of furniture we have is second, third of fourth hand. The piano was purchased at a garage sale. The table and chairs are from my childhood home. The love seat from Mike and Lisa Krauss, the big couch from the Hullahs. The cribs, bed frames, toy box...all used goods. Even our appliances came from the former home owners.

So often in my life I have wanted things. New furniture, new curtains, new clothes. I look at what I have and find a million reasons that it isn't good enough. There's a stain on the couch. The washing machine isn't "high capacity". The camera kills batteries like no body's business. At tax refund time I made a list of what we "need" to replace.

I want to buy, use and throw away. I want to be a consumer. And don't I deserve it?

During my internship in the Dominican Republic I was invited to have dinner at Luis' house. At the time the Jimenez family lived in a really small, 2 room house. Not 2 bedroom. 2 room. They had a living/dining/family room and a bedroom for all of them to share. No couch. No TV. No piles of toys for the kids. They had to borrow chairs and a card table for us to eat on.

They didn't gripe about what they lacked. They weren't embarrassed that they didn't have more. They were happy for what they had. They felt blessed to have their home.

So often we get entrenched in the idea that we need all kinds of different things. But the reality is that we need very little. And all that we need the Lord provides. But we forget all about that!

We work ourselves silly trying to acquire more. We think that if we can't have the big flat screen LE...blah blah blah that we aren't really living. That if our kids aren't in 100 different activities that we have failed them as parents. That if our church buildings don't have state of the art sound systems that we can't really worship God. So we consume...consume...consume.

In the acquisition of things...junk...we have forgotten our worth. And we have forgotten His provision.

Aren't we more beloved than flowers and birds? Our Heavenly Father takes care of them. What makes us think that He would neglect us...His precious, His children.