The story of mess

You are about to get a glimpse of my kitchen, in a mess!  For those of you who know me personally and I allow into my home on a regular basis, will know that my house doesn't usually look like this when you come to visit.  I like a nice clean house when I have company.  However, if you live with me, this is how our house normally looks.  Why?  Because people actually live in the house and amazingly so, life with people ends up being messy.

But within the mess is a story and as I reflected on the story of my messy kitchen this morning, I decided I'd much rather have the story and the people who make the story than to have a nice clean house.

Story 1: The coffee pot.  The coffee pot is out because my husband surprised us and took Friday off of work.  He bought hot chocolate, peppermint creamer and cinnamon buns as a treat for breakfast.
 

Story two: The messy counter.  This counter is notorious for all the junk.   Glasses, mail, a book that I am reading, bills to pay, tape, a whoopee cushion, you know all the important things of life.

Story 3: My mother-in-law pile.  I have a pile of things I need to take to my mother-in-law's house of stuff that belongs to her.  So yes, this pile of stuff from Christmas, will soon be moving to another's home.

Story 4: The crumby floor.  These crumbs are from the zucchini, banana flaxseed muffins that I made my kids.  They thought they were fantastic and thanked me profusely for making them.  However, they left a mess on the floor.  I don't like to sweep but my husband will do the job.  I asked him to sweep it up a couple of days ago and he said he would.  The fact that the mess was still there made me smile.  I was glad that we were at the point in our marriage where I didn't have to be a nag and yell that he didn't sweep when I asked him too. I have learned to trust his heart and know that he hadn't forgotten.  Then this morning before our Sunday gathering he noticed the mess and said, "I didn't sweep that up yet."   The first thing he did when we came home was sweep up the mess (and almost wrecked my chance to take pictures for my post).

Story 6:  We celebrated my son's 8th birthday yesterday.  That is the box that hold the crumbs of what is left, along with the camera that captured the pictures.  We have an amazing son who brings us life and delight over the last 8 years.

So as you see, our mess tells a story.  The story that it tells is that life, fellowship, laughter, love and fun live in this house.  I wish that life could operate without the included mess, but it doesn't.  All this got me thinking about my last post, Sin's power is broken, and especially about Romans 6:10-12:

10For by the death He died, He died to sin [ending His relation to it]

once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God [in unbroken fellowship with Him].

11Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin

and your relation to it broken,

but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.

You see Jesus willing choose to enter the mess of our world and take care of the problem of sin so that we could remain in unbroken fellowship with Him.  He wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty, in fact Isaiah 53:3 says that

He was a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering.

Now He now sits at the right hand of God, as our high priest who sympathizes with our weakness (Hebrew 4:18).  He has opened the way so that we can live this life in unbroken fellowship with Him.  Because He has walked this earth in flesh, He understands that life is messy and offers us mercy and grace as we walk through this life.  He is not sitting in heaven waiting for us to live perfectly, holy and clean lives so that then we can live in fellowship with Him.  No, instead He has made it possible for us to live our life in relation with Him.

If you want to live a mess-free life you will have to do it by sitting still and doing nothing.  However, when you begin interacting with others, seeing their lives and sharing with them then mess will develop.  The greatest commandment Jesus said is "To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and then to love others as yourself."  Jesus understands that if you live out this command, there will be messes along the way.  He wants you to live, move and have your being in Him as you walk through this life.  Your mess will get cleaned up, straightened and put away, but to live life in love, fellowship, laughter and friendship with Him and those we share life with is what He offers.

 

In Christ,