Roy G. Biv

This weekend, we've been purging. No, we are not going back on a fast. We spent the better part of the purging junk from our house. We are preparing to have a short-term roommate. She will be staying with us until the end of the summer, at which time she will move to her internship congregation and whatever housing they have lined up for her there.

Anyway, we've been using our extra bedroom as a storage space. The closet had Christmas decorations and our suits. We knew that we would have to move our stuff out of her room so that she can effectively take over the space. I'm also on an anti-stuff streak right now. I always imagine having to move into a smaller space. What would we do with all our stuff?

This weekend was a small step toward that goal. Since we didn't know where we would put all our clothes, we decided that we should purge the clothes that we don't wear anymore. We systematically went through all our clothes, taking note of what we haven't worn and what we expect to wear. This was especially a big deal for my Other Half. He is beginning a corporate job after working from home for a number of years. He will return to wearing suits every day, after a lot of shorts and sweatshirts. He discovered that a lot of his "dressy" clothes are quite out of style. Many of them didn't have a collar (when did that go out of style...I sure liked it at the time). I also went through a big chunk of my clothes and got rid of a lot of clothes that I held onto for sentimental reasons.

Today, I have three boxes and one bag of clothes in the trunk of my car, waiting to be donated to a clothes closet. We did throw a few things away, but we thought that most were still quite usable.

Once we finished with the clothing, we tackled a corner of the garage. We often keep boxes for a while, in case we want to return or repair something. Well, after a while, the boxes start to take over the garage space. When we were done in that corner, we had a huge pile of cardboard to take out the recycling. We broke it all down and then attempted to fit it all in the cardboard recycling bin we have. We soon found that we would have to do a little manipulating of the existing cardboard to fit our new pile in. As my OH was rearranging the cardboard, it started to rain. We were a funny sight, me holding down a slab of cardboard over him as he bent into the bin. Eventually, we got it all in., right as the rain was stopping (it was a very short shower) Now we just have to hold off until Thursday when the recycling pickup occurs.

As we were walking back into the house, we noticed a HUGE rainbow in the sky. It stretched from one side of the sky to the other. And it was bright and vivid. I haven't seen a big, beautiful rainbow like that in a long time. You could see the individual colors distinctly from one another. We stared at it for about 10 minutes before heading back into the house.

I still see the rainbow as a sign of promise. It's like the light at the end of a tunnel. Whatever you are struggling with, it seems to say that God is walking with you. And God will not let your troubles overwhelm you. You can emerge from a flood...maybe even a flood of clothing and cardboard.