Cleaning the Sheets

Dear Friends,

I could hardly wait to attend the PNE this year. For those of you who don’t live in the Fraser Valley, PNE stands for Pacific National Exhibition, Vancouver’s annual Fair. Like every fair there are rides and shows and food and marketplace booths. I was going for the marketplace booths.

You see, at last year’s fair I saw bedding sheets for sale. These were no ordinary bedding sheets; these were Egyptian cotton bedding sheets. And they weren’t just Egyptian cotton bedding sheets; they were 1200 count Egyptian cotton bedding sheets. As you can tell I love bedding, soft, luxurious, melt-into-the-bed, bedding, and these sheets promised that and more.

But last year I just couldn’t justify buying another sheet set so I didn’t buy them. This year I went prepared. And just like I had hoped, the booth was there. I perused the colors and decided on a soft green. The price was great and the bonus 2 extra king size pillow cases sealed the deal.

At this point I should have clued in that this was just too good to be true. Anyways I happily went home with my long-awaited purchase. On the next sunny day, I unpackaged my sheets – I was surprised how light and thin they felt. The room started smelling really weird, at which point I realized MY SHEETS STUNK!! After a moment of panic, I reminded myself that I was about to wash them and hang them on the outside wash-line to dry, so there was no reason to worry.

It didn’t help… Many washings later, with different detergents and softeners, the sheets were still not livable. Our final solution was to bleach them. I was willing to sacrifice the lovely soft green color for sheets that I could use; so into the washer one last time and onto the wash-line. And to my great pleasure the stink was gone, the color remained, and I have been using them every since.

Is your life just not what you had hoped for? Do you feel like you should be packaged up and put on the shelf because … well because you don’t think that you are good for anything? I have good news.

God went out of his way to purchase you and me, just as we are. Unlike me and the sheets, he knew what he was getting and choose us anyways. And through Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection, God has washed us clean. We are now a pleasure to have as part of his household. He loves to be with us and to put us into his service.

It would make no sense for me to have great sheets but never use them. Likewise, it makes no sense to be part of God’s household and not be serving him. I don’t mean that we should serve him to become part of his household, but as a result of it.

Ephesians 5:1-2 (Message)
Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.
 
Serving God is why we are so keen this year about encouraging each other to look for opportunities within the church and outside the church walls. Out of our gratitude for what God has done for us and because he loved us first, we want to love our community and world. What could this look like for you? Who could join you? I would love to hear your ideas and help in any way possible. Just email me.

Blessings from Pastor Bev