Don't Leave Your Vases Packed

We are up to our ears with packing tape, boxes, bubble wrap and sharpie markers at the moment.  As we prepare to move to Ohio in 5 days, our house looks the part.  Today as I was packing up my kitchen, I gave myself some excellent advice... I'm not the only one who does that right? Internal monologues are kind of a specialty of mine.

Any way, as I was individually wrapping and packing up several glass vases, I thought to myself, "I should label this box as one not to unpack."  You see, we are hoping to eventually buy a house in our new city, which would mean we will eventually have to pack everything back up again from the rental home we are moving into and move it all.  Again.  So as I was packing up all of my vases, I had this "genius" thought that I'd save myself the trouble of unpacking and repacking that particular box.  Vases, I thought, are non-essential items.  If we just unpack the essentials, there will be less to repack when we do buy a house.  Pretty smart, I know.

Here's the deal though.  My internal monologue turned into an internal dialogue and another voice rose up inside me to fight back against the pragmatist.  This voice said, "Don't you dare leave those vases packed!  Why in the world would your husband bring you flowers if you don't have anything to put them in?!  Don't you want flowers?!"  Oh, I do!  I do want flowers!  Fresh flowers are something I've had far too few of in my home over the years.

That thought led me to another simple and obvious thought - How many times do I miss out on blessings in my life because I don't want to put in a little extra effort?  Unpacking and repacking the box of vases and finding somewhere to put them in the rental house will take a few minutes of time and energy, but seeing fresh flowers on my kitchen table over the next year will bring many days worth of pleasure.

As I pondered that, another less simple, and less obvious thought dawned on me.  How many blessings has God been prepared to give me, that I have inadvertently failed to receive because I had safely packed away the very vessel I would need to hold them?  How many friendships has He been willing to prosper in my life that I refused to pursue because I kept my time safely packed away?  How many times has He been willing to bless my generosity only to have me keep my money safely packed away when I could have given it freely?  How many times has He had a Word to speak into my heart and mind that would have brought encouragement and growth, but I kept my Bible safely packed away on a shelf?  

You better believe that when we start unpacking boxes at our new home in Ohio in a few days, I'm going to unpack those vases!  More than that though, I pray that God will help me to remember that He has a plan to bring beautiful things into my life as well as my home, and that I need to be ready to receive those as well. 

 Don't leave your vases packed!  Lesson learned.

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