Deanna, Debbie, Lori, and Robin, I told you I would share this with you three weeks ago. It was delayed but not forgotten. You may remember that I shared these pictures with you in a text, a collage of photos I made from my years with young children.
So what led me to share them with you?
Following our long weekend together, Keith and I began reading through Ecclesiastes. On Saturday, October 29, we read Ecclesiastes 3, one of secular society's most recognized pieces of the Old Testament, thanks to The Byrds and their song, "Turn, Turn, Turn" quoting, "a time to be born, a time to die" and so on. At the end of all of the "times", the writer asks "What gain has the worker from his toil?"
It is a good question, what gain is there from our toil? We discussed 'toil' and 'work'. Those two words conjure up images of drudgery, difficulty, and dreariness in labor. We also talked about other words the author uses: 'business' and 'busy'. Those words bring to mind visions of expending energy, sometimes to exhaustion.
So what gain is there from our work, toil and busyness? In the midst of some of the dark observations in Ecclesiastes about life on this earth:
* in the place of justice, there is wickedness,
* in the place of righteousness, there is wickedness,
* we are but beasts, and die, returning to the dust,
there are some rays of light.
* God has made beauty,
* God has put eternity in our hearts,
* God seeks what has been driven away.
There is a lot to glean here, but we were focused on what we gain from our toil, and we found:
* There is nothing better than to be joyful and do good
* We take pleasure in all of our toil
* We rejoice in our work
Now, a lot of the questions that appear in Ecclesiastes are answered and hope is restored in the coming of Jesus Christ and the fulfillment of the God's promises through the good news of the gospel. But we can still learn and benefit from this simple idea:
* Rejoice and take pleasure in all of your work
(It sounds a lot like, "Whatever you do, work heartily, as to Lord and not unto men," from Colossians 3:23.)
We had differing ideas on how to put that into practice. Keith, the "boss" at work, applied it to employees doing their jobs with a good attitude, even when they don't like or agree with a directive. I took it to mean that we should maintain an attitude of joy in all we do, even (and especially) when things go wrong.
We had no idea that we were to be tested that very day. At 10:00 pm, I walked into the laundry room to move my clothes from the washer to the dryer and I found a small puddle of water pooled in the corner of the room. I walked to our bedroom where Keith was studying and mentioned the situation, asking if he would like to check out the washer now or wait until the morning (Sunday morning). He opted for the delay.
I returned to the laundry room and started mopping up the puddle. I began to wonder how much water had actually escaped from my washer and decided I should check to see if it had travelled beyond the laundry room. Thankfully, the adjacent, carpeted room was dry; but, I thought I should also check the basement. The laundry room is situated directly above a basement bathroom and, as I approached the closed bathroom door, I realized we were in trouble. A very large puddle of water extended at least 4 feet beyond the door. I pulled beach towels out of a nearby bin and began to soak up the water. It got worse. I opened the bathroom door and found ceiling tiles, saturated with water, fallen to the floor, water covering the entire bathroom, and a significant amount of water in the adjacent sauna.
I went back to tell Keith what had happened, said it couldn't wait until the morning, and returned to clean up the basement. All the while, I was counting my blessings:
* Thank you, Lord, that I have the physical ability to do this work, this toil.
* Thank you, Lord, for sparing the carpet.
* Thank you, Lord, that this flood contained laundry water and not toilet water.
* Thank you, Lord, for this jump start on replacing those old ceiling tiles (and for our procrastination in replacing those tile so we didn't destroy the new ones).
*Thank you, Lord, for getting me down here to FINALLY get this floor mopped (another procrastination).
* Thank you, Lord, that the only walls that were affected were cedar.
* And finally, and most importantly, Thank you, Lord, that I have a husband to share this toil with me. You see, we had only been home for a day, immediately following our stay with you four widows, and your conversations about the difficulty of having every responsibility on your shoulders was fresh in my mind.
So, I really was inwardly rejoicing as I cleaned up the mess!
But, the best part of it all was when Keith came downstairs after cleaning up the laundry area and getting a dehumidifier and fan in place. He looked at me and said,
"I'm thankful for you and I'm thankful for Ecclesiastes."
The words of the Lord truly do have the power to turn our troubles into bubbles. Paul was not living the easy life (unless you think prison is easy!) when he said to the Philippians,
"Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, Rejoice!"
