“For the Lord is God, and he created the heavens and the earth and put everything in place. He made the world to be lived in, not to be a place of empty chaos” (Isaiah 45:18 NLT)
I remember Grandma Browning telling me about being given her grandmother’s quilts. I can still picture her eyes as she told me the pattern names and the colors of fabric in each one. She told me of how she carefully wrapped and folded each one and placed them in a cedar chest to keep them clean and away from the traffic of her busy home. As she talked, her eyes began to cloud over. She then asked me what I’d do with one of her quilts if she were to give me one. Knowing good and well that I’d do the same thing she had done—put them away for special days or as keepsakes—she told me the rest of her story…
Those quilts? The timeless keepsakes of her grandmother? The quilted pieces of fabric folded neatly in the chest? The objects of art and fascination? They’re no longer with us. Grandma’s priceless treasures went up in smoke when their house burned to the ground. She never used them on her bed. She never displayed them for all to see. She never got them out to look at them, touch the stitches or show them to her kids. She kept them but never used them.
Grandma made me promise that whatever of hers was given to me would be used.
Some of us are doing the same thing with life. We’re saving up our praises for Heaven or waiting on a special relationship with God until “things are straightened out.” We are reserving precious memories for the holidays that litter the end of our year or single days of celebration marked on our calendars. We’re stuffing emotions and feelings until a better time. We’re holding onto our precious minutes of each day, wanting to use them for just the right thing—and then watching as they’ve ticked past.
Life’s too short to save up wonder, love and memory-making for another time. Life is too short not to use and display the quilts of our lives.
“For the Lord is God, and he created the heavens and the earth and put everything in place. He made the world to be lived in, not to be a place of empty chaos.” Isaiah 45:18
I love the words, “…He made the world to be lived in…” He has not placed us in a display cabinet to bide our time until His return. He has not gingerly wrapped us in tissue and stored us in a corner for a single, special time. He has not intended for us to be statues sequestered by velvet ropes, for display purposes only.
On this orb, while we still have time, as we wait for His return, we are to be living. We are to be experiencing the bumps, bruises, sights and smells of life. We are to get our hands dirty attempting to serve Him. We are to live abundantly among the lost, making them wonder what it is that motivates and encourages us. We are to wear our bodies out serving others, kneeling at altars and stopping to pick the dandelions that grow in the cracks of the sidewalk. We are to be out and about our Father’s business.
God has made us to live in a way that glorifies Him. Are you doing that?
Malinda Edgell
Illinois
PRAY TOGETHER: Pray today that God will not allow fears and doubts to take root in the hearts of Creative Access workers.
