The aroma of coffee fills the air as the pot gurgles to a conclusion of making the afternoon java. The mother sighs with anticipation as she thinks of the warm drink that awaits her after her final duties are done. Her dear husband has so kindly taken all the children for the day so that she can finally scrub and clean her home from top to bottom. He understands how much it helps her to be able to make some traction in this area.
Working feverishly to not waste a single moment, she has accomplished her delightful goal. Ever area from top to bottom has been cleaned to her standard. As the last corner has been mopped on her gleaming floor and the stray cobweb that eluded her eyes before has been conquered…she is ready for her break.
She is ready to sit down and enjoy the fruits of her labor.
Coffee mug in hand, she plops down on the couch. A deep exhaling breath relaxes her weary body. She is happy with the order around her.
The clutter-free room…
shining glass free of every smudge…
DVDs arranged in perfect order on the shelf…
the tidiness takes a weight off her shoulders.
“Why can’t it always stay this way?” she wonders.
“Maybe if I just reorder my schedule, rework something I am missing so we can have that magazine home all the time?”
But, even as she thinks this she knows it is not so. She knows the Lord is working patience with her and a home of love is filled with joyous messes that mean productivity. She just needs more patience and right now, she is pretty sure she has patience.
Smiling to herself as she enjoys the dust free cabinet that has not looks so nice in months, she looks out the window,
and catches her breath…
Driving into the driveway is the family van, filled with all her mess makers lovelies.
Puzzled and a bit panicked by their early return, she runs to the door, ready with rug in hand to plant at the back entrance. As the patience she was sure she had a moment ago is suddenly gone she does not know what she will find in a moment. Mentally preparing her marching orders for shoes to be taken off, coats to be hung in the closet and toys to be banned from the living room, the door erupts open.
Father quickly comes in with an armful of curlyheaded boy. He heads down the hall and before any questions can be asked- a projectile of lunch spews across the air, hitting the wall and sliding down to the previously sparkling clean floor. As he takes the sick child in to the bathroom to gently care for their son, anger boils up inside the mother. As she looks at the pile on the floor she sinks to the ground. She is ashamed by her thought first being towards her floor than concern for her sick son.
Before she can get ahold of her heart, child after child comes running in. Muddy footprints, coats flying, laughter and giggling ensue. Fat chubby hands of a toddler thrust a bouquet of “fwowers” into mommy’s nose. She smiles, but inside she is crying.
Where is her “perfect world”? Where is her order and peace? Where? Oh where is that patience?
Her head spins and she realizes she needs to write read a book called Embracing the Mess!
Two hours later, toys are strewn about….
the children are sucking their thumbs and listening to daddy tell a story.
Stroking the head of her child in her lap, she finds it. She finds her peace is in dying to self. She finds her peace in Christ’s emptying her of
her” and filling her with “Him.”
Her “perfect world” is pouring out the love of Christ to her lovelies. And in the end as she embraces the mess, as she dies to her gleaming counters and outward order, as she embraces the muddy footprints as gifts from God…she finds life.
This is story is a fictitious story (sort of). Linking up with Welcome Home.
Edifying family films…
