Put together an empty basement, a box of bulrushes and a playful puppy. Leave alone for two hours while you go shopping and you have the recipe for an almost unclean-able mess.
When I returned home the basement was covered completely with fluffs of bulrushes. Sitting in one corner was “Freckles,” our little spaniel, with a tired but completely satisfied grin on his face. He’d had a wonderful time.
But alas, it was me that had to try to clean up the mess. Trying to clean up the fluff was nearly impossible. As I approached with the mop or the vacuum cleaner, it would just back off. Freckles sat in his corner and I really think he was laughing at me.
God would have understood about my frustrations…He’s been there trying to gather us up and found we were just as impossible to collect.
I sometimes think our sins are like the bulrush fluff…lots of fun chasing around but murder to try and clean up and wipe up the basement of our lives.
But I loved Freckles, much the same as God loves us. He brought laughter to my life and I actually have a three minute movie (remember those old camera’s?) of Freckles running around the back yard, chasing Willy (the neighbour’s dog), jumping over sister-in-law Carla and I and giving us the wildest action movie I have ever seen.
I’m finding God has a terrific sense of humor. Each morning we have this game with my earrings…will my arthritic thumbs allow me to attach the tiny butterfly backs?…Some mornings He says “nope, not this morning” and I smile and accept my limitations. Other days I run to the microwave for my hot drink, only to find I forgot to turn the machine on. He laughs with me and says “you’ll just have to wait two more minutes”.
He sent my friend Rae over yesterday. (She is my computer expert). She called me (?…no you can’t know…it was Harry’s special name for me…but as a next door neighbour she had heard him call me it many times.) I laughed…and yesterday I needed laughter…I was just getting over the flu.
Yes, the God of laughter sends laughter to us in so many ways…puppies, earrings and memories, to name a few. He knows exactly what space we are in and he is determined to meet all our needs.
Photo by “Aid2” by Jessicali345 – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
