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| Everything in its place--in the puzzle we just completed and in (most of) our condo! |
Inspired by a Poet's Mother
At the birth of
our first child, I received a classic book from an old friend: A
Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. As I pored over those beloved poems, like “The
Land of Nod” and “My Little Shadow,” I discovered a sweet poem that reminded me
of myself. The title of the poem escapes me now, but not its substance. Stevenson was ill as a child and often
bed-bound. No doubt that was the
catalyst for much of his imaginative journeys.
But he wrote about his mother quietly moving about in the evening time,
straightening things that were out of line, and re-setting order each night.
That’s what I
want to be about. That first-born son is now 14. As a mom on the go
raising kids on the mission field, I want to be that person who sets things in
order. In our house back on the mainland,
that would have been loading the dishwasher and starting it each night. In our small condo in Hawaii, that would mean
washing a few dishes by hand and re-ordering our glass table. When we lived in Tonga it meant reading the
favorite chapter book to our boys each night, keeping an element of consistency
despite natural disasters and crowded bus rides to different villages.
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| (Reading to Evan on the bus in Tonga, en route to a village for outreach) |
But there’s
something else about that nightly ordering.
Today as I softly step about our small condo, I pray. My mind runs through a check-list of loose
ends. I make notes for the next day, and
I pray for things left undone. Concerns
that push their way to the front of my mind I gently push up toward
heaven. Like pieces of laundry that I
shake out and carefully fold, I present each request—hopefully with
thanksgiving—to my Father who sees all and knows the end from the beginning. That’s more truly what I want to be
about. If I can faithfully remember to
pray at the end of my day, I can go to bed knowing He who never sleeps will
perfect that which concerns me.
My sons can
awaken each morning to see a home—and our lives—in order.
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| These pictures are infrequent glimpses of our condo looking very much neat and in order. |
