It’s no secret that Janet and I have been in alert mode for the last several months. First, there was the purchase of the new house. Then, there was the preparation to put the old house up on the market. And that in itself is enough to upset the apple cart in the lives of most people. After all, we never planned to move or to purchase another home, let alone a larger place.
And then there were the workmen – all over the place – getting the old house ready to sell, cleaning the carpets, moving most of the furniture out while still staging the old homestead and patching all the nail holes and other things that needed repair in order to turn the house over to the new owners. Similarly, we have re-decorated every wall in the new house and have unloaded hundreds of boxes – most of them packed by the moving company and mis-marked. So they have been moved all over the house – trying to get them close to their final destination for unpacking and storage.
Last week-end, I finally tackled organizing the garage with Pat, our dear friend who helps me with chores around the house. And by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around, the garage racks were built, the boxes unpacked, floors swept and cleaned; even the garage doors needed to be serviced and that had been accomplished as well, thanks to the quick work of Jeff, our overhead door repairman. And even the cars were programmed with the new codes.
I guess I forgot to mention one of the most important events of last week – the closing of the sale of the old house to its new owners. What a relief – we had been carrying both places for the past 4 months and while that was something of an inconvenience, what concerned me more was caring for both places. We had snow removal service at both houses and with the house inspection, we had things that had to be upgraded to meet current codes. Until we got the check in our hands, we didn’t know if everything was going to close okay or not. And I really didn’t want to consider the idea of having two homes for any substantial length of time.
A whole additional stressor in our lives was the recent illness of our dog, Lexie. After three blood transfusions and nearly loosing her, she was diagnosed with canine lupus. Luckily, the medications are working and we averted a close call with her health. It’s been a long, slow process of recovery but she is finally on the mend and making progress.
So here we sit, Tuesday evening, having returned from a Costco run earlier this evening and for the first time in a long time, I don’t feel frantic about anything in the world. What a great feeling… Sure, we still have some things to unpack still and the pictures aren’t all on the walls yet, and come to think of it, Janet’s car has a burned out running light, but in the scheme of things, we are really good to go. You could say that we have entered the Lord’s rest – a phrase that my grandmother used to say all the time.
The verse for this evening speaks to this issue of rest – it is from Hebrews 4:10-11, “for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.”
My encouragement this evening is that God expects us to work, but He also expects us to rest and to feel the peace that comes from a job well done. That’s the place that I am in tonight. My prayer is that you will also experience the divine peace that only comes from having a relationship with the God of the universe. Because, soon enough, there will be more work to do and once again, you will be thrown into the hustle and bustle of the world. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…