My parents-in-law are moving into a retirement home today. One of the challenges for them is to chose carefully what items to take with them to the new place. They are moving from a full-sized house, and the challenge could be overwhelming.
If I could only take one thing with me to a new home, what would I take? perhaps I would just refuse to go, like Granny of the Beverley Hillbillies…
My Mother in law is thinking of choosing a comfy chair. That makes sense, having a good place to sit and read, and think and remember…
This reminded me of something by Mike Mason:
Brokenness
Psalm 51:8
Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.Do you have a favorite chair, a place where you feel most at home and comfortable? So does joy. Joy’s favorite chair is your sadness, your weakness, your grief. Wherever your wounds are most tender, joy finds a soft place to settle. A lighthearted person may rejoice, but no one has greater capacity for joy than one who is, like our Saviour, “a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering” (Isaiah 53:3). Joy loves our brokenness best.
in Lent, it can be helpful to connect with our hurting places and examine them with the Man of Sorrows. He is acquainted with grief.