Buried, Risen, only to be buried again???, that’s what my Jesus plush doll looks like, buried under a pile of my own paperwork, which I know is important but I couldn’t tell you what was in it. And gee I hope I paid the bills!

Each of these plush Jesus dolls from the Hallmark store have a slightly unique look, so I think the doll has a “trying to be non judgmental” but with an all-knowing smile, even a smirk at our humanness. Because we all know that Jesus sees right through us.

Don’t worry, I’ll get through this paperwork sorted, it is nothing more than 3 inches. I’ve actually been filtering instead through somebody else’s paperwork recently for helping my friend move.  She has made TREMENDOUS STRIDES and will skip town with the moving pods early next week. It’s kind of addicting helping people and projects, the project fits my personality and mental quick processing mind to match my fingers. After helping at least 4 different friends at different times clean out their backlog of paper, I pretty much know what I’m looking for (sort, shred, save, stash away for another look). I even understand history and vintage things up to 100 years. I’m fair in saving and trashing the uncleanable. And you do have to look at everything. 

Shred to the right, recycle the folders to the left. Take out the binder clips but leave paperclips. Be thankful for free shredding drives. I’ve done this numerous times – I pull up a chair and just decompress my day while my mind filters the paper…

And the same is true with cleaning out my family farmstead, up north (we are not cleaning it out but cleaning it up, honestly it can become a museum in my opinion). That cleaning has no quick time frame, like my friend’s who is moving. But up home those folks are not getting any younger in their 80’s… At my farmstead, my most treasured treasures are the people who still remember the stuff. This makes for a more delicate sort but also a chance to reminisce.

We are on God’s time frame, so we are to remember the people who won’t always be around. In all occasions it is good to remove the excess 25 to 125 years of paper and shred and recycle… and it’s even more important to remember the memories. But if there’s too much stuff and everything is important then nothing is important… so we must weed out the clutter and rescue the memories. 

It’s especially important to LOOK – to underearth the treasures, this can range from a Dad’s dogtags to a child’s artwork, you don’t have to keep everything – there are treasures for someone else – that is valuable in the universe of sharing. And in cleaning we can go through our own memories and appreciate the past that doesn’t have to follow us in paperwork. (and remember things that USED to be important even stressful and don’t even ring a bell now)…  Time heals all wounds… And so we might want to save items that can be token not necessarily big, knowing the experience is treasured. Of course the love is forever. 

They say there are only two certain things in life: death and taxes. But don’t forget the LOVE… there is certainty that there is LOVE because God is LOVE and God LOVES us. This can be squishy plush LOVE or tough LOVE towards us, it is always AGAPE love over the top and more than we deserve or could understand. And our LOVE of mercy and grace will bring us closer to Jesus. We need to bring JESUS into our lives and rise Him up in our piles that need to be shed. And by raising our eyes to focus on Him we raise up His values and our hope. Find Him in all things. 

He rose once, we don’t need to bury Him again!

Let us be more like Jesus in Love and in looking above!

Shed the pack, don’t pack the shed.

Don’t ever pack away love, unpack it and take it forth.   

Amen 

—

John 15 NKJV

The True Vine

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

Love and Joy Perfected

“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another.

The World’s Hatred

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’

The Coming Rejection

“But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.