I should be grateful for this mess?

The joys of moving!

My friend Chris and her husband, Stash, bought a house earlier this year. Both are very skilled. Whatever they do, they do with caring attention to detail. Stash knows, for example, how to conduct the heat from the fireplace he built in the basement rec room to warm the living room on the other side of the house.

They completely gutted the place and started from scratch. After months of work, they have moved in, accompanied by many, many boxes.

I stop in this snowy evening to see how things are going. Chris has not exaggerated. Boxes fill the freshly painted living room and kitchen. Teen Christopher in the rec room is putting together a tall corner cabinet.

Immediately my generous friend gives me not one, but two Christmas presents. I hand her my bouquet of grocery store flowers, intended to cheer her unpacking. We find a place for them on her bedroom dresser, where the mirror behind enhances their simple beauty.

We three sit down for tea and talk – a welcome break I think for both of them. Since they are moving from a larger to a smaller space, it has been difficult for Chris to decide where to put things. Although she is very capable, today the task seems overwhelming.

We have very different concepts of God, and I am not sure we will connect by talking about God’s supportive love. So, letting His/Her love support our conversation, we talk instead about gratitude.

“I should be grateful for this mess?” she half jokes. After a moment’s thought, she adds, “I am grateful for my mess. Yes, I am.”

Stash nods kindly. “Yes, a great many people would be happy to have these boxes as their biggest problem.”

As I head home, the defroster melting the ice on the windshield is an apt metaphor for the power of gratitude melting despair. And I thank God for His/Her love meeting every human need -- one way or another.