Cleaning Out My Closet

I learned a new word several months ago:  ephemera.  I think I read it in connection with scrapbooking.  Ephemera is defined as things that are only useful for a short time, mainly paper items that were only meant for one use but then become collectibles.  Think ticket stubs, wedding programs, and that fortune you saved out of your cookie at the Chinese restaurant.

I spent some time going through my boxes of ephemera in my closet last week.  There were wedding programs, birthday cards, letters from my little brothers, and lots of cards from my mom from my college days.  

There were letters of encouragement from sweet sisters in Christ, and an e-mail I printed out from KJ the summer he was in China with a list of 70 things that we could do together when he came home.  Apparently when you're young and in love, "getting lost" is something you plan to do.

I threw away some things but kept a lot.  There will probably be more things I need to throw away, but I like ephemera.  Sure, it's been 6 years since I last took it out to look at it, but it reminded me of all the many seasons of my life that are in the past, people and places and ways of life that are gone now.  For instance, I found a stack of papers, engagement stories from couples from our church in Kentucky from a Valentine's dinner we had.  That was a precious season for us.

Sweet friend, Breck, in our old Kentucky Home

And those past seasons used to be future ones.  They are reminders to me of God's faithfulness, of how wonderful it is to be a part of His Body, the Church, because there are friends and family wherever you go.

Be still my soul; thy God doth undertake

To guide the future as He has the past.

Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake;

All now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Be still, my soul; the waves and winds still know

His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.

- Katharina A. von Schlegel -