Thrive!

I cleaned the carpet yesteday at home, on my knees scrubbing it by hand. Then using hot water and carpet cleaner in my carpet machine, I scrubbed it more.

This morning, I sit on the couch and look at it — beautiful.

I glance across the room at the overhead light in the kitchen. I replaced it a few months ago. It involved taking out the old lights and the wooden framing around them, rewiring the electrical wires and installing a new electrical box, re-drywalling the recessed ceiling, texturing it, painting it, picking out another light and installing it. It was a mess for awhile; now it looks great.

I walked outside this morning before sunrise. Venus and Jupiter sat beside each other in the southwestern sky. They have been in motion this month, dancing, moving in and out with each other — gorgeous. I can tell God put some time in on his lights.

Every creation, by us or by God, involves a process. Genesis tells us that first there was the chaos, then there was order. The universe, the stars, the planets, in God’s hands took shape, established their places and began to dance. It happened over time. God must have thought, as he worked, they are really going to like this. We do!

Every new thing takes imagination and planning, every old thing renewed takes steps, every making-the-world-a-little-more-attractive takes labor and love.

We work, we lay our work aside, we rest, we work again. The first stages of a project put us on our knees. The final stages have us looking up. We scrub, or we tear something up — it isn’t pretty. The water I poured from the carpet cleaner yesterday was grey and gritty. The kitchen ceiling had holes in it before it was smooth again.

I’ve noticed lately that things have to get ugly, before they get beautiful. I am relandscaping the lawns at the church. What a mess! Dead grass, piles of dirt, weed mat flapping in the wind, not yet covered by the soon-coming wood chips — it looks horrible.

And yet, there is coming, a day when I will step back, and with great pleasure, look it over, finished and flowering and beautiful.

I think about it, the way we get from here to there, from nothing to something, from old to new, from good to better, and I understand how to live wisely.

Iimagine the good future; get on your knees —  scrub, wire and work your way there.