Creating Space

After putting pictures of my newly finished basement on my web page year before last, I couldn't bring myself to take pictures of what it looks like right now. You see, we finally got around to cleaning out the storeroom section of our basement, because it was packed with boxes and stuff -most of which hasn't been unpacked or seen in over five years now. I did put a picture up a few weeks ago of our newly cleaned out small storeroom that we turned into Donna's new pantry, but this is the big storeroom - which is about a quarter of the basement. Yesterday, Donna was finally able to finish with the loads of Christmas stuff - I'm talking thirty-seven years of collected decorations - some we haven't had out in decades - and were able to cull it down to a manageable heap about the size of a washer & dryer. Yeah! Then we started in on the rest. Now we have a huge pile of things for Goodwill, and we've made several trips to Mr. Dumpster. Nevertheless (isn't that a great word?), our basement is covered with piles of stuff, as we sort, separate, and travel down memory lane with each box we open. Let me share a few observations.
* What we remember is absolutely dwarfed by the magnitude of what we've forgotten about! (Of course, I knew that, but I'd forgotten it.)
* It's amazing how some little "thing" (i.e. figurine, cup, picture, etc) can trigger the opening of a whole section of the past you haven't thought about for years.
* It's amazing how much "stuff" you accumulate that you can't remember anything about, much less why you've kept it so long.
* Many memories don't disappear just because you refuse to keep some little memento in storage.
* Letting go of something that triggers an important memory is worse than pulling teeth - and it doesn't matter that you haven't seen it in years.
* Forget about one picture being worth a thousand words - why do so many make you feel a thousand years old?
* Why do I have the sinking feeling that all the space we are freeing up will soon be filled with more stuff?
* Wow! How can you look at how much you have to store (not use - just store) and not think about how much you've been blessed through the years?
* Okay, I'm a preacher, but more than anything else, I'm a sinner - saved by the grace of God. And you know what REALLY amazes me? Because of Jesus, my sin storeroom is empty!