Five months now I’ve lived among stacks of empty boxes. Empty because in my attempt to downsize, I can’t or won’t let go of 46 years of accumulated personal belongings because of the memories attached to them.
How do I discard the ‘artistic’ pictures from small grandchildren who may or may not have signed their work but even all these years later, I feel the love they put into every stroke? All the cards received over the years? The paper plate a formative hand had written “NANA” so I would know it was mine? Or the paper cup originally purchased filled with lemonade from two very young but oh so cute proprietors?
If the Bible is our answer book, can I find a verse or two that helps with packing? Hmmm…maybe. In what manner did the Israelite women decide what was important to carry for their hasty departure? Would any of it be the very stuff their children would probably throw away after the forty year relocation program?
The forty years preceding moving day from Egypt were some pretty harsh ones for Jacob’s descendants. Working conditions were bad enough however it didn’t top the horror that was done to their children. Might there be something to read between the lines in order to learn from Moses’s sister, Miriam, during this time of oppression?
Younger brother, Moses, had already gone off to earn his forty year Burning Bush Bachelor Degree so could it be his big sister was left in charge to at least rally the female troops? If so, let’s look at a possible character trait of Miriam’s with one meaning of her name being ‘rebellion.’
Did Miriam rebel against the “woe is me” slave mentality that had her people engulfed in despair and fear? Could she have carried within her an inextinguishable spark of hope in a promise of a deliverance day from their heavy burden?
While stuck in memory mode, I have failed to trust our Father’s plans to bring me into a land of promise, to plant me on the mountain of His inheritance. Yes, our Father keeps every prayer in His Golden Pot, tears in His bottle, and a scrapbook for those of us who revere Him and love to think about Him. (Revelation 5:8; Psalm 56:8; Malachi 3:16; Exodus 15:17) But I don’t think that means I can pack those boxes with all my not so eternal things. In fact, could those very memories become a cardboard windbreak that prevents His Spirit from fanning the embers of my faith fire? (2 Timothy 1:6)
Hiring a moving crew isn’t the answer either. Just like a heavy cannon ball has no power in itself even if an army of men hurled it at their target. Adding gun powder along with the ball inside a cannon, the weapon would still remain ineffective. But let one spark of fire ignite the powder, that cannon ball becomes a thunderbolt which smites as if it had been sent from heaven.
When celebration time came in the Israelite’s camp for the fulfillment of God’s fire of deliverance from their oppression of the Egyptians, Moses and the men sang with their voices. After they finished, Miriam picked up a tambourine, and all the rest of the women followed her with their own tambourines and joyful dancing.
Wait! Where did Miriam and the other women get their tambourines? Had they packed them away in faith forty years ago for this very moment? When Jesus said “I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled!” could He have been talking about igniting our victory song and dance?
As I resume packing for my unknown future since I have no idea where I will be moving, this process of letting certain things go isn’t easy, but, oh, to possess the fire of Jesus to have the forethought to pack a Faith tambourine!
