This week, in the lead up to our 20th wedding anniversary, Sharmini found a secondhand bed that would match the drawers we have.
She went to pick it up and I started emptying the room to make way for it. I was certain she would want it in the room the second she got home, yet surprised me with an idea:
“Let’s reminisce about our early married life and sleep on the floor!”
What an amazing idea!
When we were first married, we lived in my parents house, in a room crowded with things I was selling, our clothes and a mattress on the floor. It was cramped and chaotic, but we made it work.
Our next move was to a cheap rental and again we slept on a mattress on the floor through the heat (a 2 storey tin ‘house’ with no insulation – crazy hot). At some point, we found a broken bed on the bulk rubbish and welded it up…we had an actual bed: wahoo!
It was a difficult time in our relationship – people we loved & looked up to attacked / abandoned us. Sharmini was chronically ill with morning sickness, we were attending Bible college and had *very* limited money.
So little in fact, that we would sell chocolate bars at lunch time for 50 cents profit. We were living day by day, but wanted to help those in need. We would share Jesus with people and try to help others any way we could – but there was a weird dynamic at play…
We would regularly give people food parcels. But then we would find out that these people ‘in need’ were smoking, drinking, had Foxtel and other extravagant things we could not afford… they had *so much* more than us! What was going on?! We literally had no money, yet we were feeding them??!
It was a struggle to keep our hearts right – but also we had to face facts: giving food to some people was just helping them use their own money on drugs & ignore the issues that contributed to their children having a terrible childhood.
Back to the bed…
The next move was to a vacant bock of land in the middle of nowhere. 3-4 hours from Perth, we had a few old caravans in a paddock. No water, no electricity, no phone or mobile coverage, not even a toilet! It was *crazy* difficult. The bed? A double squeezed into the end of an old mouldy, mouse, scorpion, spider and centipede infested van.
It was freezing in winter and unbearably hot in summer. People that visited us had trouble surviving a day – my wife made it 18 months!
From there, we lived in Sharmini’s parents house, then a couple of different rentals with beds glued together. Our bed was always just whatever came up cheap or free at the tip or bulk rubbish.
After we moved to this property, it was back to a double bed in an old caravan. It was cold in winter, the toilet was a trek outside in the rain but at least summer here was more mild.
It would be a few years later when Sharmin’s brother would be stung by a bee & die suddenly. As the shock and repercussions died down, we moved his old bed & mattress in to our partially built house. We had just put the roof on, no windows or doors, but it was a novelty to lie and reminisce during the heat.
Being a king size, we didn’t know what to do with all the room, so often all 8 of us would lay on it & talk or play a game.
Unfortunately, my back could not handle how soft the mattress was, but we found an expensive chiropractic mattress (for a crazy low price) and that was that – for a few years, until today.
This amazing looking bed, even matching the drawers in our room?! How incredible! Our room looks almost normal – with actual furniture…that MATCHES!
The one thing letting is down is the broken windows, manufactured incorrectly we have waited for 5+ years for the installation company to sort them out. Having given up hope, we really thought we were going to have to take them to court. We prayed this week that God would sort it out before then as we really don’t have the energy for such ventures. Then today?
I received a call from the company out of the blue…they want to come up & see if they can fix the issues next week?!! How crazy is that?
Sometimes it is the little things that point towards the bigger picture (good and bad).
Really, the bed, the design, the colour, the matching… they mean nothing. It’s all just smoke & mirrors. No matter how nice, how perfect, you can’t take it with you.
If you experience poor health or pain, you’ll know what I mean: possession’s mean *nothing*.
Our relationship, our children’s character and well being, our family dynamics, our ability to help others, is not better with better furniture. Whether in the freezing cold squashed in to a mouldy van or in a king size matching bed, it is relationships that matter.
First with God, then with spouse, children, family, friends and others.
May we learn to be content with what we have and use all of it for honouring others.
The very wealth you were counting on will eat away your flesh like fire. This treasure you have accumulated will stand as evidence against you on the day of judgment.
(James 5:3 NLT)