Remember how coat drives were pushed around Christmas? Finally, after about ten years, I gave away a coat that was my husband's dress coat. Each time I came across it, I had great memories of him since he wore it when he was working his professional job and usually wore his nice colored dress shirt and tie. Yes, these were the years when he was walking and our life together was relatively normal.
There weren't many years like that, so I treasured the coat. Yet it was serving no purpose and it bothered me that it could be giving someone else warmth as well as looking good, perhaps helping them land a job.
Since I'm not very sentimental, this should have been easy but it wasn't. I agonized over giving it away, not wanting someone to receive it then not treasure it the way I did. In other words, I wanted to control the fate of the coat.
When I finally "let go" of the coat, I had to let go of my control too. I had to pray that God would see this coat would go to whomever and for whatever purpose. That only made it a little bit easier.
The purpose of a coat is to provide warmth. Sometimes the best way to share warmth and the love of God is to set aside our own plans. Maybe it takes a decade, but eventually sharing can be both for another's benefit as well as liberating for the giver.
There weren't many years like that, so I treasured the coat. Yet it was serving no purpose and it bothered me that it could be giving someone else warmth as well as looking good, perhaps helping them land a job.
Since I'm not very sentimental, this should have been easy but it wasn't. I agonized over giving it away, not wanting someone to receive it then not treasure it the way I did. In other words, I wanted to control the fate of the coat.
When I finally "let go" of the coat, I had to let go of my control too. I had to pray that God would see this coat would go to whomever and for whatever purpose. That only made it a little bit easier.
The purpose of a coat is to provide warmth. Sometimes the best way to share warmth and the love of God is to set aside our own plans. Maybe it takes a decade, but eventually sharing can be both for another's benefit as well as liberating for the giver.
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