Over spring break my son decided he was going to come down and help me find my garage that had accumulated four or more moves in the past few years, piling boxes upon boxes, beds and miscellaneous items. Now mind you when we first moved to this house, it was going to be temporary and we literally moved three homes into one. Then when my son moved to a new apartment in Tulsa, my garage again stored more of his things that he couldn’t fit into his place. So to say it is full to the brim is a complete understatement and yes, I had said we need to have a garage sale for several years now. However, what a child doesn’t understand is that all those things are a small part of all the years, tears and cheers that have made us who we are today. So where he can easily toss these items out to make piles to sell, keep or trash, I feel like I am literally unpacking every memory and moment of my soul and having to decide what has to go.
Yes, I know that I am a procrastinator and I should have done some of this years ago with each move, but not once during any of these moves did any of us really take off several days to get things done. Due to all of us having demanding jobs we would work around the clock to do everything we needed to do and then move what we could when we could which added to lots of unorganized boxes and chaos. Two moves were done in such a hurry I had to call extended family members to come help at the last minute and boxes were even taken to storage and my sister-in-law’s garage until I could come and get them. So, when all of these things finally ended up in my garage and storage building, it was like an Oklahoma twister had hit.
However, as I was forced to finally begin to sift through old paperwork and boxed up mementos, I was taken back to those yesteryears and tears began to fall. I sighed as I pulled out my children’s art work where my son at age eight had made his dad a card with all of us on the front porch of our first home outside of Checotah. He had colored all four of us on the porch with a yard full of cats and dogs, flowers, and a swing set. It made me smile and cry. Then I found some of my daughter’s assignments. One was a reading award. Another one read “I will not talk in class” written many times and I laughed because I was her teacher back then and she seldom stopped talking. Then another note had her selfportrait and why she loved a Christian school and Jesus. It made me smile and cry too because there is a part of me that wishes I could go back and do things differently but I can’t so I press on.
As my son was emptying boxes he handed me an old air popcorn machine, stating it was probably trash. I told him “No, this was your late grandma’s old air popper she had given me even though she loved popcorn; she knew that you kids loved it more.” So I put it in the keep pile.
Box after box of memories and years of tears and cheers I went through well into the night until I was physically and mentally exhausted. Then I got up and went to work the next day and came home to do it all over again.
Now I have piles in my living room that have to be put up and I had to laugh when my online pastor preached this Sunday. She spoke about the Israelites leaving captivity and how they had to pack everything in a hurry and get out of Egypt before Pharaoh changed his mind. So they shoved everything they could into sacks and loaded up to leave behind the pains of yesterday. She stated that she wasn’t a light packer either and I was thrilled to be vindicated in my own insanity of packing up everything but the kitchen sink when I go on vacation. I even pack an ice chest and emergency kit for a two-hour road trip because you just never know what you might need. Right?
My pastor went on to say that life is never easy, but God has given you everything you need to get through the different and difficult seasons of your life. You just need to take inventory of what you do have and store it for tomorrow’s use.
Of course, she was speaking on a spiritual level as well as a physical one, but I was moved to know that God already knew what I needed and it was already packed – even inside of me because I’ve even packed a “Hallelujah!” God knew where I would be years down the road and He had been preparing me for this journey even without me knowing it at all.
My pastor went on to say it was okay to unpack some of those things that I had been holding on to and I could go ahead and make this place a home. That God wanted me to live in the moment that I was in and I didn’t have to worry because I had everything I would ever need. I was just the packer, but He was the planner. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Though there have been many years of tears and cheers, God’s hand has steadily been guiding me to my destiny and my ultimate destination. So I will dig out my tambourine like Miriam did in the Bible as she praised her way to victory and God parted the Red Sea to make a way for Israel. I too will dance and sing as I travel through this wilderness to my promised land.
Though there may be times my back has been against a wall of disappointments and the waves want to crash upon me to drown me in my plight, surely God will also deliver me as I choose to keep following Him no matter where He leads me. Yes, there have been years of tears but soon the cheers will be heard again.
