Clutter in My Heart

      It is taking longer than ever to defrock my home after Christmas this year. In that "other life" when my kids were young or when I worked outside the home full time or grandkids lived under my roof, everything was spit-and-polish shining by the end of New Year's Day. Yep, for real!
      Then life got even more crazy. I tried to understand retirement, got a new family, traveled and entertained more, and learned different traditions. All that along with the A thing  (aging!!). It seemed that Epiphany was a good target date to be done undecorating.
HA!
     Epiphany arrived last Thursday and time stood still for a couple of hours. Our Sunday School class gathered for our annual dinner and this year everyone brought favorite Nativity sets to share. A special "Ah-Ha" night! Sort of peaceful and sweet.
     Then a trip to the ER the next day after a rebellious dog event (my fault: had Ava's leash on my arm when she spooked and went the opposite direction, taking the leash and lots of my skin with her) Next, all the heavy, protective towels I had on my plants to protect them from freezing weather got soaked when God sent ONE INCH of rain to our drought-stricken land. Yep. Dropped right down on top of us last night. Marvelous! So today all those covers had to go into the dryer before nightfall and another freeze. *sigh*
     The atmosphere and my mind are just full of clutter and thinking is rambling. Good. Bad. Stuff. I do things automatically and think of good times and old times and a time when it seemed not to hurt so much.

Yeah, there's a story--but that's for later.

      Tonight I packed away happy memories, two days after we celebrated Wise Men finding Jesus. I could not shut out the TV news of tragedy, death, destruction, and evil that left innocent people dead. I clenched my fist and tried to sort the chaos running through my mind. Impossible. And.... excuse me? What? Isaiah, you say?

     I smiled at the old paper Rudolph and closed the lid to the box. Things weren't particularly easy 18 years ago, either.  Life changes and is hard. Life hurts and is cruel. Isaiah?  AND   "The grass withers, the flower fades; BUT THE WORD OF OUR GOD WILL STAND FOREVER."

     I keep reading... "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth."

     No, that does not stop the pain, or give warm clothes to people with no homes, or heal estranged families but it assures me that we are NOT in this alone.

     "He does not faint or grow weary;" Listen and hear and remember: "Those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they SHALL walk and not faint."  Isaiah 40

And, right on time, the Messiah came. And He lives. And He WILL return.

My thoughts and our world is full of clutter. I hope that God's Word will cover us with His Peace that surpasses all understanding.

May that Peace surround you this week.

Because He First Loved Me,

~~Liz~~