A change of scenery.

I’ve been staring at a wall for a couple of years. My mother-in-law passed away, and our house went into mourning. A few months ago, I took most everything down and left it that way. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I just knew I wanted to change it, so I started the process by removing what I didn’t want up there.

I figured it out. I went shopping in my closet and other walls.

Many of the items up on the wall were made, carved, and painted by family or family ancestors. The other things I received or picked up along the journey of life and haven’t left because, even though I am an avid ‘donate it’ kind of person, I loved these. I like things in a collage. I like things that, as I see them, go together. I am a kind of maximalist.

Little Me

I love watching my granddaughter #2 – she looks a lot like me. She even has the sassy silliness I had when I was little. I get to watch her grow up unafraid, and it’s healing my heart.

This little girl in this picture loved to smile, and she learned how to hide behind it too. God is restoring the joy that he put in me, and I am loving that.

I love watching them grow their family

We had Family Friday at Dear Daughter’s house, then we went out to Orange Leaf for dessert.

Family Fridays have become one of my favorite family gatherings. Each week, we rotate between our house, our daughter’s house, and my mom’s house to eat and touch base.

First Place

On Sunday, I had the privilege of speaking at church. I was speaking on the portion of Scripture in Colossians 1:5-20

The Centrality of Christ

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn over all creation.
¹⁶ For everything was created by him,
in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions
or rulers or authorities—
all things have been created through him and for him.
¹⁷ He is before all things,
and by him all things hold together.
¹⁸ He is also the head of the body, the church;
he is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead,
so that he might come to have
first place in everything.
¹⁹ For God was pleased to have
all his fullness dwell in him,
²⁰ and through him to reconcile
everything to himself,
whether things on earth or things in heaven,
by making peace
through his blood, shed on the cross.

When I first started reading these scriptures, I had a picture flash in my mind of 2 chairs. I put that on a sticky note and left it in my Bible. As I was putting the message together, I got to the part about the two chairs. I began to ask the Lord What do you want to say about this, and He said, “Leave it for me.” I thought…what? No notes? I had no idea what was going to come out of my mouth in that space.

Isn’t this a lovely chair? (yellow chair) How about this one? (folding chair) It’s all right. It has a little padding. Not too shabby. A little on the back. We’ve had worse, haven’t we? Like Straight up metal chairs. This chair is just not that great. But this chair, it’s really nice. Real nice.

But the issue with this chair is that we think that this chair is worse than this chair, not as good as this chair. But here’s the thing. There’s only one person who can sit on the throne. Just one. And boy, because we think that chair isn’t as good, we take this one. And this is the chair we like to sit in because it’s more comfortable and it’s more prominent. It’s first. It’s the first chair, and this is where we like to sit.

But if you’re acting as the head, you cannot follow. It’s a real cozy chair. But this one, this one you get to make much of someone else. This one, you get to watch what he’s doing. You get to sit and have a first seat next to his. And you get to watch what he’s doing, where he’s going, what he’s saying, who he wants to talk to, what he’s interested in, how he’s feeling, what’s going on.

But we like this chair. We want to be in control. We want to be the head. We want to be first. We think this space is better.

Check your heart. I do this all the time. A couple of weeks ago, I told you that when we had communion, the Lord wanted to know, wanted you to ask if there was any part of your heart that you needed to give to him. (surrender) And he said to me, I want you to give me what you think you know, because I think I know everything. I don’t know about you, but I think I know everything. I think I’m pretty smart. I’ve lived life. I’ve been through some things. I’ve learned some lessons. I know some stuff. I think I know.

And what he told me that day was that I sit here. I forget that my actual place is here. And I don’t simply ask him Where are we going? What are we doing? Oh, I don’t… Oh, wait. No, no, that’s not… Oh, it’s not. No, no, it’s not what we’re doing. Okay.

And sometimes we’re waiting, and we’re getting real antsy sitting here. Real antsy. And if we’re not careful, we don’t even know it. And we slid over here, and we are in control, and we are doing our thing, and we are running business, and we have forgotten who God is. That’s right. The one who is over all creation and over all the new creation in which all of you are.

We get to sit in the second chair, and it’s the best seat in the house. The absolute best seat in the house.

He is supreme. Is he first place over you?

Funny Thought

God has an interesting way of teaching us lessons. I know that I can figure most things out. I have a very logical mind and can think critically through things, and for the last 2 years I have heard myself say, “I don’t know. I just don’t know what I am supposed to be doing.” And now apparently I don’t have to figure it out. (because there was a time that I needed to apply myself) But now the Lord is saying, “Just ask me.”

Now that I think about it. When my son was little, 3 or 4 years old. Every morning he would wake up, and the first thing he would say to me was:

• What are we going to do?

• Where are we going to go?

• And who are we going to see?

LOL — perhaps he was prophesying all those years ago about what I needed to do in this season of life. HA! Where the head goes – we follow!

Thanks for listening,

Starla