July 25 – “Alone again”

It started with an old wooden chair, long past its life of usefulness around the dining room table.  Now it could barely stand, glue long ago worn out, peg dowels broken or missing altogether.  Certainly not a place I would want my grandchildren attempting to sit on.  Oh, we tried to re-glue it, but nothing would hold.  Sadly, the wood had been warped just enough by the flood of Hurricane Ike.  It would never be the same again.  It was … time.  And so I tossed the chair on the side of the street out by where our trash is picked up, hoping that maybe someone with greater skills than I have would rescue it and perhaps give it new life.

It sat alone for a few days … until Chris agreed that one of the metal chairs that goes with our outdoor furniture set could join it.  That one has no seat.  Completely rusted through.  She had though she could figure out a way to put a plant in there somehow, and if anybody could do it, she could.  But she finally decided there were other, more significant projects she could spend time on.  Now once I got the second chair to the street, I decided they would look more interesting if I set them up facing each other, as if they were awaiting their occupants for a major summit at Camp David.  Apparently that caught someone’s attention.  The next time we got into the car to go to WalMart, the metal chair was gone.  Sigh.  Alone again. 

But all was not lost.  Another errand sometime later, and I noticed something awry by the wooden chair.  Someone had tossed … what could that be?  I went over for a closer look.  It was an ironing board.  Looked brand new.  Metal.  No real signs of rust.  It was as if someone had felt the same pangs of sorry as I had at the predicament of the lonely wooden chair.  Of course I couldn’t let that pass.  I stood the ironing board up and pushed the chair up to it as if it was an elegant dining table waiting for a state dinner to commence. 

So what was the ultimate fate of the chair and the ironing board?  Well, they are both still around this morning.  I am seriously considering finding an old vase and adding some flowers to brighten things up a bit.  Maybe an old tablecloth …

Philippians 3:7 says, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.”

Father, thank you for being all that I really need.  Thank you as well for the use of the all the things around me, from chairs to ironing boards.  Amen.