Reflections on Making Room for a New Kitchen
A few years ago we started dreaming of the possibility of renovating our 1970’s kitchen. Last fall we pulled the trigger and ordered the new cabinets. So exciting!
Early in January, we started demolition (yes, we’re doing this all ourselves)–pulled down all the “bulkyheads” (as we like to call them) and tore out all the old cabinets. Goodbye 1970! We were making room for the new. So exhausting!
January 19th was day one of Covid. Not exactly what we had planned for the week before the new cabinets were due to arrive. The project came to a screeching halt as we could do no more than get out of bed and move to the couch for the next 10 days. No new cabinets came the next week, as they weren’t allowed to deliver to a “Covid-positive-house.” So discouraging!
For the next month, we did what we could with what little energy we had each day. It seemed that 9 pm couldn’t come fast enough as we looked forward to bedtime. But then yesterday the delivery people called and said they could be out to our house by the end of the day. So unexpected!
Today as we started assembling the kitchen, the first cabinet to go up was the one holding the double oven. The cabinet went in just fine…the double oven, not so much. We lost our grip on it, dropping it on its corner, shattering one door. So disappointing!
I think of Lent as a sort of “renovation” of my heart, making space for the Lord to rearrange as He sees fit. Sometimes it’s going to feel exciting, as I experience Him inviting me to come to, follow, and be with Him. At times it may even be exhausting, as things surface that I didn’t expect. And then there will be the discouraging disappointments–those losses that catch me off guard. Even though I’m in a season of “making space,” there are some things I’m not yet prepared to lose, and still, the Lord will beckon me to loosen my grip and let them go. More space.
Psalm 18:19 (NASB95) says, “He brought me forth also into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me.” We make space for God, but He is the one who brings us into that broad place…and delights in us! Ponder that for a moment. The God of the universe delights in you. What kind of space does that wonder invite you to make for Him?
ACTION: In these Lenten days leading up to the death and resurrection of Jesus, what might God be inviting you to? For what in you is He creating space?
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