AAAchoo. Packing to move sure stirs up the dust.
I consider myself a good housekeeper. I dust regularly. But, when I began to empty out shelves and pack away books and knickknacks, the dusty back corners loomed at me. Tiny scraps of paper, dust bunnies, cat hair.
My nose twitched. My eyes watered. As I grabbed the dusting cloth and furniture polish, I pondered. “Sniff. Now where did I pack the facial tissue?”
How could I have not seen all that dust lurking? Because the things of my life – books, heirloom figurines, family photos, mementos – were hiding it. I regularly dusted around them, maybe even lifted them and dusted underneath. But the pesky specks settled in the far back depths, unseen until I emptied the shelf. I thought to myself. Hmm. Perhaps I should take more time on a regular basis, say every few months or so, to empty the shelves and dust more thoroughly. If I could find the time…
A faith lesson tickled my mind –
Sometimes, God moves us in order to shake up the dust a bit. He takes us from our comfort zones where life has settled around us, and in the process of rearranging and weeding out the things we have gathered to us, our patient Lord reveals the accumulation of specks we have neglected.
Perhaps a negative attitude towards someone.
Maybe a lie we regret telling.
The time we acted less that Christian,yet left unconfessed.
LIttle things we have tucked away in the back of our lives and not tended to very well. But no one sees that, do they? Over time, we may not notice it either. We have cluttered up our life-shelf with other things. The more current things get our attention. Those we confess, and clean away. Yet, these other things in our past continue to accumulate in the depths of our souls.
Today, I found a message from God in some dust bunnies at the back of my shelves: Cleaning up my act may mean rearranging things in my life so God can point out to me the areas I have neglected – the ones out of sight.
Perhaps I need to carve out more time with Him on a regular basis so He can help me reveal my past mistakes. That way, they don’t build up. Maybe, I can do that while I am dusting my shelves more thoroughly in the new place. With each swipe of the dusting cloth, my Lord will show me where I need Him to wipe away my sinsfrom the corners of my heart.
Lord, help me find the time to do both, and, no matter how arduous, rejoice in it.
Where will you find God today?
I can relate to those pesky dust bunnies.
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