Garage sales,storage units , uhauls and moving vans.....
All summer long and still, there are garage sales out and about the community. Then you may see them at storage Units as well...moving trucks periodically come to the same houses with their ramps, moving crews, and another family moves in or out....boxes everywhere, on the driveways, open garages packed with stuff.....then the dumpsters filled with cardboard and recycle for weeks on end...moving. We think it will take a day, because, "I don't have much".....then we empty every drawer, closet,attic, basement, rooms and it all adds up to a lot of stuff...
I have tried to imagine what it was like living In the desert for the Israelites for forty plus years...what about "the stuff" we carry along? We know their shoes and clothing lasted the whole time, a miracle in itself...no shopping malls along the way the buy new clothing, no food stores-God provided the manna and quail, no faucets of running water, no feed stores to get extra nutrients for the animals, no toy stores for dolls and Legos, no storage units for the extras....no garage sales to browse...
The Israelites had extra as they freely gave to the building of the tabernacle.....skins, cloth, gold....
Were they on a rotating field schedule so that their animals always had food as they did? How did they pack their belongings? As the children grew, did they have clothing exchanges as they moved along? What were their most valuable things, in case of emergencies ? How did they carry their fire to remake their fires for cooking or warmth? Or did they have flint or something quick starting? Did they burn wood and where did it come from? Or did they burn dung as other cultures have through the ages?
After they settled in the promised land, did they want to go camping for pleasure and for the memories of their sojourn In the desert? Or was nomadic life a pleasure? Did they start to accumulate more stuff when they settled into houses?
They didn't have the valuable picture albums, the crystal , valuables that we have handed down and don't use, Aunt Edna's first crocheted doily or someone's first grade report card, college textbooks,......stuff...
Father, thank you for all the history, the stories , your Word, thoughts,,wanderings, and sojourning we do. Help me to know what is valuable, what it temporal, what is eternal.....lessons about life...
Psalm 105:40-42
New International Version (NIV)
40 They asked, and he brought them quail;
he fed them well with the bread of heaven.
41 He opened the rock, and water gushed out;
it flowed like a river in the desert.
42 For he remembered his holy promise
given to his servant Abraham.
Deuteronomy 2:7
The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything.
Deuteronomy 8:2
Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.
Deuteronomy 29:5
Yet the Lord says, “During the forty years that I led you through the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet.
No comments:
Post a Comment