By Judi Braddy
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Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10
Nothing reveals the strengths and weaknesses of a marriage like cleaning the garage. A recent collaboration on this task illuminated some cobwebs in both.
First I discovered that my husband is—gasp—a stacker. He actually believes a garage exists for the sole purpose of housing a vehicle. Thus, everything else need only be stacked around it.
I, to his dismay, am a strategist. Cleaning of this magnitude takes careful planning—in one case, six years. Was it my fault that just when I’d settled on the perfect plan we moved?
Thanks to Martha Stewart, I see a garage where everything is not only immaculate, but color-coded. My husband contends that cardboard IS a color. Deluded man. Every Martha wannabe knows you need see-through containers with colored lids and cabinets for storing things…in alphabetical order.
I cannot prudently tell you where he suggested we file Martha.
Then there’s sentiment. My husband is attached to the weirdest things—like golf clubs he no longer uses, each representing some special achievement. Once he announced he’d won a sand wedge. I thought he said ‘sandwich’ and couldn’t quite grasp his excitement.
Okay. I, too, admit fault in this department. It seems every book, box and bag of memorabilia requires a coffee break, and box of tissue, to peruse. So what if I am occasionally sidetracked when finding forgotten treasures just pleading to be displayed? Necessitating something be moved. Revealing a need for cleaning, painting or wallpapering. Confirming my case for a bigger house…with a barn.
Alas, we do not live without clutter, humanly or spiritually. Clinging stubbornly to things of the past, we stack our baggage neatly, barely leaving God enough space. Or we present to Him our long-range plan for organizing life into manageable little compartments. Sometimes, like the Psalmist, we ponder how God can live in our cluttered lives and why we continually allow things to take over and squeeze him out.
But messes don’t seem to bother God one bit. In fact he delights in taking the chaos and bringing it into order. Mercifully, when we can no longer circumvent the clutter, God schedules a work day and says “Let’s sort it out together.”
Why I can even imagine a heavenly color-coding system: righteous red for ‘forgiven’, misty white for ‘forgotten’, and spring green for ‘new beginnings.’
Judi Braddy s a writer, motivational speaker, licensed minister, pastor’s wife, mom and grandma. A regular columnist for Woman’s Touch Magazine and the author of three books: Prodigal in the Parsonage; It All Comes Out in the Wash; and Simple Seasons (from which this article was adapted), Judi has lived through scads of seasons and turned over a number of new leaves. She her husband, Jim, live in Elk Grove, California. Visit her witty website at www.judibraddy.com.