A Time For Everything
I was reading in Ecclesiastes today from Chapter 3 where there is a time for everything. I began thinking about my sister and my Dad cleaning out the house in which we grew up. In the house were many items my Mom treasured. Growing up on a farm in Southeast Missouri, she would tell us stories of how her dad would take her out of school so they could pick cotton. She told us she never wanted to see another cotton field after that.
One of those items my mom treasured from the house were dolls. Mom loved dolls and she had over 500 Barbies still in the box on a wall for display. She never wanted to touch them or take them out of the box she just wanted to admire them.
Now, she did have about 10 dolls that were about 3-4’ tall, and to be honest those creeped me out. I used to pull pranks on my sister, putting the doll by her bed with a knife in its hand or if she spent the night in the downstairs bedroom and turned on the light to go upstairs, I would put the doll at the top looking down on her. Now keep in mind she got me back many times.
We look back on those times with a smile on our faces. Each year we would get Mom a new Barbie or Barbie ornament. That would bring her such joy. Now each Christmas, in her honor, we put up her Barbie tree full of Hallmark Barbie ornaments, each ornament packed in the original box.
Many things in the house which were mine I would never need anymore, like my 10th-grade typing homework, my satin country and western shirt, or my old McCloud coat. The scripture says in verse 6 “There is a time to keep and a time to throw away.”
But there are some things I found which brought back floods of emotion. I found a picture of my mom when she was 19. I think of my life when I was 19, and of course, I knew it all. Ha Ha. Just what were her thoughts for her future and what was going through her mind? So many pictures and memories to go through, and honestly, the rest is just stuff. There are sentimental items we have taken so we can pass them on to our kids, but the main thing I think of is the love she gave us in those 4 walls. She told me and my sister a few years before she passed, she apologized because she could not give us all the things other families were giving their kids. My sister and I looked at each other at the same time and we told her “We never felt poor because we had all we needed.” There was never a day where we came home and felt unloved, unprotected, or hungry.” My mom told me when I was one before we moved, we used to live in a concrete block house and in the winter, it would get so cold ice would be on the inside of the blocks. She said she would wrap me up in blankets and hold me close to keep me warm. That is the love I always felt. On the anniversary of my mom’s passing my sister wrote “God didn’t have to bless us with an awesome mom…. But he did!”
Ecclesiastes’ 3: 1-8
A Time for Everything
3 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
There are items we have that bring us joy and there is nothing wrong with that. Just as the scripture says, “A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them.” Wherever you are in this time in your life, there is time for everything. The only question is are you too busy or too stubborn to stop and know what season you are in? There will be a day where you will start cleaning out your stuff and realize it is just stuff and the people, family, and friends in your life that you have touched and have touched you will be what you treasure the most.
Blessings,
Mike