Well I’m nothing if not a Saturday squirrel chaser…
Today I rose out of bed to tackle a few tasks before heading off to a Scout function. The tasks weren’t vague. I didn’t get blindsided by any urgent appliance malfunctions, clogged toilets, or doggie disasters. Just simply start some laundry, get Coleman’s Scout uniform ready, and shuffle a few things around in the spare bedroom.
So here’s what I did: I emptied a cabinet to make a place for my Pyrex.
Does anyone else have an after supper storage standoff? Doug and I are pretty quick to pitch in on cleaning the kitchen. We chipperly clear the condiments, load the dishwasher, and wipe the countertops. And then we slow down and show down… who’s going to cave and open the ‘tumblewear” cabinet?
It used to be Tupperware but there have been additions of every size and shape of warped and melted plastic storage containers. Stacking strategies last about two days with lightweight lidless bowls. When you open that cabinet, it all falls out. And so the job of putting away the leftovers is truly the leftover job. One of us will be three commercials deep into Monday night football before the leftover loser finds the right size container AND a lid that fits.
So I bought some Pyrex. I’m sure the full name is Pyrannosaurus Rex. It’s the undefeatable carnivore of containers. Fridge to microwave to dishwasher to its place in the cabinet. Booyah. Twenty-eight pieces, four sizes, heavy duty glass with lids that don’t leak… shoot, our standoff just became a race for who gets the privilege of packing the Pyrex.
This Pyrex makes me think of abundance. We are fortunate to have more food than we can eat in one meal. It also makes me think of some of the places I’ve been and the people I’ve seen whose abundance is very, very different from ours.
I’ve seen the villages in the Sub Sahara where a child’s clothing was a string. Nothing more. A tattered t-shirt given from the leftovers of the wealthy was that child’s abundance. When I visited that part of Africa, I was overwhelmed by the need and, as corny as it seems, all I could think to do was take photos of the children and show them their image in the little digital screen of my camera. During the week I was there, the kids would run up to me and shout, “Madame Photo! Madame Photo!” I’d take their picture and they’d give me the most delightful smiles. At the end of the week, one of the ladies brought me a basket she had woven to thank me for making the children happy. I have never, ever been so humbled in my life. Thin strips of straw woven out of her abundance. I wondered what she had back in her primitive hut that would even fill that basket?
I have an answer for that. Love. And faith. And unfathomable strength.
What if I never had anything to put in my Pyrex? Would my heart be filled with an abundance of love, and faith, and strength? Would I find something to be grateful for? This thirty days of thanks and giving can seem like a mockery if I’m not very careful to distinguish my blessings from my distractions. I want to want the love and faith and strength but I’m weak, and I want just the abundance.
I’m thankful for a place for my Pyrex. I’m thankful for abundant blessings. I am. But at times my heart has the most irrational longing to be stripped of all I have and be shown only what I need.
I’m thankful for an abundance of blessings and I pray that you are blessed with an abundance of love, and faith, and unfathomable strength.
“But as for me, my prayer is to you, O LORD. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.” Psalm 69:13
Riverbrat 