Simplified

May 5, 2012 at 1:56 am (Security, Through the Storm)

Simplified

Matthew 6:31, 32b

“Take no thought for your life saying, ‘what shall we eat, what shall we drink, or what will we wear for clothing?’ For your heavenly Father knows you have need of all these things.”

“We have arranged for you to stay in a fully furnished apartment until we can get you back in your house.” These words were a comfort to me as we drove our kids to the place where we would stay the next few months. We had just left our burned out house, where white squares in black soot now marked the spot where pictures once hung on the walls.  Our “fully furnished” house was nothing but a water-logged, soot-filled, broken-apart house. It was a strange feeling to own nothing but the clothes on your back.

I was relieved to have dishes, towels, and blankets at the apartment, but they weren’t mine. The ones I had were given to me as wedding presents, holiday gifts or bought at the store because I loved them.  Mine had memories attached, and they were gone.  Whenever I picked up the quilt in the family room and folded it up, it was special because my great grandmother made it for me. The machine-sewed “quilt” on the living room couch now, had no meaning to it.  Never before had furniture, blankets or dishes retained such meaning and at the same time mattered so little.  On the one hand, I did not want to lose the representation of the person or memory attached to that object, but on the other hand, I still had my husband and children; and that mattered more.  Ironically, it was a strange paradox. I didn’t care that I was sitting on an apartment couch that wasn’t mine, because snuggling in with me on that couch were my children, happy to feel secure with their parents.

We didn’t replace everything in the house because we realized we didn’t need it.  The idea of “simplifying” became real that summer as God provided for us those items we needed.  We simplified and it was very freeing.  And even though the previous objects of my house, so full of meaning, were gone, the memories attached to them lasted. Simplicity and happy memories: that was all we had, and that was all we needed.