thrift store shopping

have you ever lost something you didn't think you could live without?

i used to work at this thrift store in a small farm town. every day people brought in boxes overflowing with musty smelling clothes, oversized garbage bags teeming with shoes, books, lamp-shades, paper towel racks, rusty old hangars and other completely unidentifiable odds and ends. sometimes i would hold my breath as they dragged in pile after pile of curious objects.

as i'd begin to sort though the mountain of hopeless junk i would almost always find one or two items that would uniquely capture me...a colorful picture frame that perhaps once held a snapshot of a precious moment in time, or a magnet shaped like missouri -- possibly commemorating a special adventure.

i guess we will always stumble upon treaures. jewels that will capture us. perhaps they are filled with meaning or they inspire hope. for awhile those items might even define us, but most often there will come a time when they will get tucked in a drawer nearly forgotten about until someone is looking for a paperclip and happens upon your valuable keepsake. oh what a painful thing it is to be reunited with your lovely treasure! its meaning and memory might be as fresh as yesterday but is it really necessary or is it clutter? ah. the age old question ;o)

it is good to hold on to that which is truly necessary. but i suppose it is painfully beautiful to give up those things which you are holding onto for fear of losing something you might not be able to survive without.

i am told that the Lord intends to heal our wounds and bind up our broken hearts. it is to this promise that i cling as i stare - in utter disbelief - at my open, empty hands and wonder..."whatever will i do without?"