A while back I gave my daughter my old broom for her outside deck. I think I had had the thing for two decades. At one time it was brooms that cleaned the houses…not so nowadays. I have several vacuum cleaners, one for upstairs, one for down and one for the garage. They are all old but then so am I and I can no longer drag them from place to place.
But my old broom was always a standby, ready to sweep either the dirt or the snow off the front step. It wasn’t a pretty thing and had a decided lean that cautioned you not to just put it casually against the wall and forget it. And one end of the straw bottom of it was sparser than the other. But it didn’t need to be beautiful it just needed to be useful.
I keep telling myself that as the lines on my face deepen and the double chins become triple chins. Sometimes I feel like that old broom…being replaced by more modern alternatives, sitting in a corner and of not much use to anyone.
Recently my daughter moved and gave me back my old broom. Like a much loved teddy bear, I held it and it felt so good in my hands. Yes, it is somewhat bruised but not broken. I handle it more gently now. I want it to last my lifetime.
The saying about an old broom sweeping clean has an ending to it…it is…’but the old one knows the corners.’ Experience can be a valuable asset.
Perhaps that analogy can be taken into life too…perhaps that is what life is about, one experience after another forming us into the people that we are…hopefully the people that God wants us to be.
Of course new things are wonderful…each new day is an adventure and each new season a surprise, (a chance in spring to see those fall- planted bulbs bloom) and each morning a new photo of the great-grandchildren on Facebook. Wonderful!
But there is a sense of security in the old things like Main Street in your town, the grocery store you always shop in and the church you worship in. But best of all is the security in knowing God is there…always has been and always will be. And that gives me the courage to start the new day and the knowledge of knowing that He’s seen me through yesterday and will see me through all my tomorrows.
