Cathy's Corner

Cathy’s Corner

In December of 2006  Gary, Caitlin and I had been living in a two bedroom apartment for the past six months waiting for our house in Lubbock to sell. Our daughter, Kiersten was moving up here with us and we decided to move into a rent house with three bedrooms. Mind you this was during a time that our house in Lubbock hadn’t sold for the past ten months, my Mother was terminally ill, our son J, was in Iraq for the second tour and Gary did not have a teaching job and was working nights driving a forklift, so to say our lives were a tad bit chaotic and stressful is an understatement.  

At one point I finally got most of the boxes unpacked and I had to tackle the garage where the washer and dryer were located. I was tired from moving, stressed out from worrying about my mother, Christmas a few weeks away and a son who not only wouldn’t be home for it, but was in danger on a daily basis. I finally had the garage looking really good. There were two wire shelves up above the washer and dryer which were 10 feet long. I had gone through everything and had it in its place. I had things on the shelves, some of Gary’s stuff on one end and the laundry stuff at the other. I was washing, drying and hanging up clothes. I walked into the house and as I closed the door I heard a crash and knew immediately what had happened. I turned around and went back out and sure enough the bottom shelf had broken and everything that I had spent the last few hours organizing and putting in place was on the floor. Now I’m not talking just the shelf broke. I’m talking the bolts came out of the wall and left big holes in the wall. Gary said the wall even pulled away and remember this was a rent house. The weight was more than the shelf could hold. Gary did have a small cabinet with all his nuts and bolts and nails and stuff in it and miraculously it was still hanging on the shelf by inches. It was bad enough having to clean up the mess but the thought of having spent the last few hours organizing everything and then was going to have to do it again was more than my tired stressed out body and mind could handle and of course Gary would have to repair the wall and the damage I’d done.

Isn’t that the way it goes? We think we get our lives all neat and tidy and things just the way we think they should be. It’s all organized and together or we have taken just about all we can take. Then just one little thing (like hanging the laundry up on the end of the shelf) causes it all to come falling down around us. Sometimes just one more thing can send us over the edge. There is a scripture in Proverbs. “Men plan and God laughs.” I was reminded once again God is in control and He knows the plans He has for us, plans for a hope and a future, and plans not to harm us but to prosper us. Even in all of the chaos going on around us He is still in the smallest details of our lives. Can you imagine trying to sort through all of those nuts and bolts and organize them? It was still up there leaning toward falling, but nothing spilled. In all of the mess there was still something that was intact. God still had His arms around me and was holding me safe and secure and He was doing that for our family as well. Things may have felt like they were falling down around us but He still had each of us in his arms. He had my mother wrapped lovingly in His arms. He held our son safe and secure in His arms. He held Gary and our girls safe and secure in his arms. There was never a time I felt like God was not there. I may have not understood how He was working but I knew He had a plan and He loved me. So this week if you feel like things are falling down around you; remember the nuts and bolts are still in tact on the shelf, God is in control and holds you safely in His arms.

Have a great day in the Lord