the day of small things
The Day of Small Things
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” Proverbs 13:12
My husband and I recently ordered a new sofa and love seat from a furniture store in town. It’s leather, in a beautiful cream colour, with a powered recliner feature in both pieces. We had fun planning and shopping for this set and consider it a reward after years of unanticipated repairs which turned into major renovations on our house. Even while we eagerly await delivery of the new, I find myself looking at my current battered red fabric sectional with sentimental eyes.
This couch has served our family well. The sagging pillow backs and fraying seams, mysterious stains and dog hair tell the story of our life: kids, pets and conversations, movie nights, snacks and Christmas presents opened, cuddles and laughs and recoveries from colds, flus and surgeries. We love this cherry hulk for all the memories it keeps, especially the one of how it came to us.
We moved to this house in the single-mom years, the five of us coming from a two-bedroom basement suite. I tackled all the renos that I could manage myself--mostly painting and wallpapering--and then contracted the bathroom and bedroom jobs out. As the spaces in our home got settled, the living room remained empty except for a couple of wobbly chairs, a footstool and a TV. When the maelstrom of fixing had subsided, we looked around and realized the need. I engaged the kids in the search for suitable living room seating.
We began our research online while I saved money for the purchase, and moved to in-person evaluations after about a year. We visited many a furniture store that fall, me with a collection of half-growns thumping along in winter boots, runny noses and all. We must have been a hand-wringing sight for the staff! We flopped down on dozens of couches, chairs and ottomans before settling on a sectional. The colour choice surprised us all--red, no less!--but we agreed that bold was the way to go. The order was placed and the wait began.
After several months and multiple delays, our sectional was delivered. As we danced about the living room that late-winter night, taking turns draping ourselves over the luxury of our new sofa, our joy was complete. It was a marvel, like a giant crimson hug waiting for us in front of the TV.
The next day one of my daughters came home from school disgruntled and said she felt sorry for her friends, all in their mid-teens. “Now why is that?” I asked. She told me how she had tried to describe our fantastic new sectional to these friends only to be met with bored disinterest and a quick change of subject.
“So, why do you feel sorry for them?” I repeated.
“Because they can’t understand how great it is to have a couch in your living room!” She sighed. “They have so much nice stuff all the time that they can’t see why I care about a new couch.”
“Well,” I said gently, “It’s certainly a blessing, having just enough, because then every little extra is exciting isn’t it? It’s easy to be thrilled when you are us, right?” We laughed hard and bounced onto the couch. I felt sorry for those kids, too.
I thanked God again in that moment and asked Him to help us to never lose sight of His provision, to never get complacent in His grace. O Lord, help us cheer every bit of sunshine, every load lightened, every flower blooming, every situation going right when it could so easily go wrong. “If the Lord had not been on our side…” (Psalm 124:1) I hear in my heart and agree.
Our sectional will have a new home in the basement, once again in front of a TV, ready for the dog, the last teenager and the now-twenty-somethings who come home to visit. It will be a sad day when it can no longer serve us and a trip to the dump becomes necessary. But when the time comes, we will hold its memories in our happy bank forever.
"Who dares despise the day of small things…?” Zechariah 4:10
Carla Taylor-Brown