Sometimes we need to clean. There are times when we feel the deep compulsion to rid ourselves of those items that seem to weigh down on us. Yesterday evening as fading light surrounded me, I sat on the front porch, cleaning out the hundreds of photos I had saved to my phone’s photo library. Last week, I found myself taking the same action to my bookcase, ridding the weight from the books to lighten my collection. Photos. Books.

• How do we ever collect so much?
• Why do we allow ourselves to become overwhelmed by the accumulation of so much (stuff).

During the winter, I found time to clean our clothing closet. Just ask my husband about that experience because since that day, one of his favorite shirts is missing, but that is a topic of writing for another day.

The boxed books went to my sister-in-law who plans to sell them in her booth at the Peddler’s Mall, but what does one do with the accumulation of photos saved? There are only three choices: Move them to a created album of photos—OR—Delete them as trash—OR—Procrastinate until another day.

I chose the action of sorting some to save and deleting others.

Now, maybe you are reading and wonder: How can this action apply to biblical truth?

While revisiting each photo saved on my cell phone, I was able to revisit memories. One that remains even into this morning is a photo of my great niece and nephew sitting in my sister’s loft, surrounded by toys, puzzle pieces, snacks—a full mess—while on my watch. In the photo, my nephew (who received the play-name Sir Lancelot) is riding a wooden horse, wielding his play stick, the same stick that we used to play fight. We were battling for Lady Guinivere (aka my niece). In that same photo, you can also see that we are surrounded by thousands of puzzle pieces that had been dumped from their boxes (by my neice) in what seemed two seconds time. I recall turning my back, something we should never do when children are at play, and then turning back, to encounter thousands of loose puzzle pieces—my sister’s collection of puzzles lying in a large heap.

How does one replace place scattered puzzle pieces back into their proper boxes?

Let me just say, “One doesn’t, or at least, one does not without hours of tedious work separating the puzzles into the boxes where they once were meant to be.”

• Christians—We are made for something MORE than this life.
• Believers in Christ—We are to surrender our will to His, trust Him, and rest in God’s timing, until God calls us home to heaven.
• Followers of Jesus—We have been empowered by His Holy Spirit, we are called to serve the Lord.

So, yes, our closets may be full of clothing that needs to be donated, and our bookshelves might be burdened by the weight of too many books. Even our photos housed inside our cell phones may be consuming our internal memory space. Oftentimes, we may re-discover a photo taken of a room filled with chaos. However, we are reminded daily of God’s Amazing Grace and His purpose in keeping His saints here on earth. We are to ”be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, . . . “

This is how we daily remember WHO we were made to become and our calling from God, our everlasting strength.

BTW—I sorted and placed the thousands of puzzles pieces (sort of) back into their original boxes and then promptly placed the puzzle boxes on my sister’s dresser with a special note: Sorry, we were at play, and life got a bit messy.