Mix Matched

Life is such a funny thing, isn’t it? Today I find myself pondering the huge problems of the world, like the people right around us who are starving, the people losing their homes, lives, everything in Syria, the people living in the US who fear the direction the country is headed will leave them on the outside. These things weigh me down and steal my joy. At the same time, I am annoyed that our spoons keep going missing. And why is it always the spoons, by the way? Thank goodness we don’t live in a climate that requires socks because Lord knows we would be losing those, too! I’m ashamed to express these sentiments in the same paragraph, but they all go through my mind in the course of one morning. I don’t understand myself.

Here are the most extremely petty problems of Sarah Nicholson:

-half the ornaments on our Christmas tree are broken and glued back together
-my favorite tea pot that was a gift from my mom is broken and glued back together
-half of our spoons from the silverware we got when we were married are gone
-every Willow Tree piece I have ever gotten has been somehow broken- EVERY ONE (no matter how high a shelf I try to put it on to prevent breakage)
-our really nice kitchen knives have been used to cut fruit on concrete
-many of my clothes and linens have bleach stains because of the univseral use of bleach to clean everything here
-many of our precious books were rained on and ruined because the truck that moved our stuff had a leaky tarp covering it -has anyone ever heard of a complete set of matching glasses? I don’t think they even sell them that way in the store
-I won’t mention the list of things we have had stollen from us, but it’s long… and very expensive
-and last but not least, I now only have one bra insert for my swimsuit because the other was used to scrub the bathroom

That’s the thing with things, they just don’t hold up very well. Which is exactly why Jesus warned us about getting too attached. Then I think about God looking at his beloved creation, infinitely more valuable and precious than any of these “things.” How grieved He must be at the hurt that He witnesses. But you know what is so beautiful about God? He is able to redeem… anything… everything. And He has promised that He will. Actually, He already is. In an attempt to understand what God is doing at the God level, I can try to do it at the Sarah level. I can take the broken ornaments, glue them back together, put them up on my tree, and find them beautiful, because they are mine. God never intended for us to be broken, but He is all about the work of mending, and, I believe, He looks at us afterward, scars and all, and finds us beautiful, because we are His. I can take the few spoons I have left from my first set and mix them with others… a mix matched set of silverware. This is not what I wanted at the beginning, but it can be a beautiful thing. And when God takes people who do not match and puts them together, it’s a beautiful thing, isn’t it? One that needs a home with one who needs their worldview expanded, one who needs parents with those who need children, one who needs food with one who needs to learn dependence on God. And, just like that, God has mix matched us, and we are beautiful. Mix matched, broken, and beautiful.

And so, Sarah, do not despair at the state of your silverware, and do not despair at the state of your world or your country. Everything that is broken, God is redeeming, and everything that is lost, God is finding. And you get to be a part of that. Go find someone who is broken and be a part of God putting the pieces of their heart back together. Sometimes just a genuine smile can add a little glue to the cracks. Go find someone who doesn’t match you and offer them your friendship. Imagine the beauty that God sees in the two of you together. And remember that when you feed someone that’s hungry or give someone a drink that’s thirsty or put clothes on someone that needs clothes, you are doing these things for Jesus, even if the hungry, thirsty, naked people are your own children.