By Karen Y. Stevens

I don’t know about you, but before overnight company comes, I go into contract/spring cleaning mode.

I’m doing touch up painting on the cabinets, doors, walls, etc. I’m rearranging furniture, dusting the blinds, and the list goes on.

A house is an ongoing project. You don’t own it; it owns you.

What about when we have drop in company? You do the flight of the bumblebee trying to pick everything up.

Jesus is going to be both. He has already told us He’s coming, but He failed to tell us when.

If we aren’t expecting anyone, we leave the newspaper on the coffee table, bills on the counter, etc.

We do this with our spiritual lives. We let garbage pile up in our soul till it gets so clutter we can’t see wrong from right.

When my house starts getting cluttered, I either throw it in a closet, put it in a box marked with it’s contents, or I throw it out. Usually, it’s the first.

I have shared over the last several months about the miracles that have happened in my life.

Another miracle was when I was driving North on the Southwest Freeway in Houston, and I was behind a low-boy trailer with all sorts of items in it. One item on top of the pile was a red wagon, and at one point the trailer hits a bump, and the wagon is flying right toward my windshield. The words of some sort of prayer came out of my mouth, and when the wagon was about 3 feet from my windshield, it was if a large hand pushed this wagon off to the side of the freeway. I can remember this as if it happened seconds ago.

This memory I have put in a box and labeled it with the contents, as well as all the other memories of miracles I’ve experienced.

I know I am far from being what God wants me to be, but I also know He loves me and has protected me for so many years. The bad memories in my life float around in my brain with no purpose or label.

They harm me when I dwell on them. I sink into a darkness of regret and no purpose. But when I take the boxes out with the good stuff, and walk down memory lane, I’m uplifted and can’t believe that the God of the Universe would love me enough to pay attention to me.

I’m unsure how to throw the bad memories out, but I do know the more I dwell on the good ones; the bad ones seem to fade.

If you’re like me and function better when your life is organized, then take out a piece of paper and write down all the wonderful things God has done for you, big or small, miracle or coincidence, and dwell on them.

It will make the bad memories fade, and it will help you get ready for that special company that is coming.

 

Karen Y. Stevens is founder of the Orange County Christian Writers Guild