BETWEEN HERE AND THERE

Being confident of this very thing
that he which hath begun a good
in you will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:6

A major event in our family life when I was little was Monday wash day. My Mother rarely missed doing that. Monday evening she “sprinkled” the newly clean clothes that needed ironing the next day. Usually nothing else was done on those two days. With a move to another house, clotheslines had to be put up in our back yard.

My Daddy's huge contribution to all of that busyness had been to plant support poles that would hold clothes lines. One was put on one side of the yard and the other on the opposite side. He had a man weld two sturdy metal pipes with a cross beam on the top of each one. There was a huge hole dug, poles planted with lots of concrete poured in the hole to secure the poles. There were four hearty clothes line ropes pulled between those two posts. He would also make some tall wooden props with a notch at the top of them that could be put on a sagging rope holding clothes that would raise the clothes higher in the air as if raising a flag.

I never knew a week when something wasn't hanging on one or more of those ropes. In the time during spring cleaning, rugs would be taken out, thrown on a clothes line or two and then with metal rug beaters would be used until it would seem there couldn't be an ounce of dust left in them. There were times when my sister Kay and I were allowed to make tents by throwing a large, long cover across a clothes line to make a tent to play in. We didn't get to do that often, but when we did, it was more fun than most kids in our day will ever know in a lifetime.

What do clothes lines have to do with anything spiritual in nature? I look at our spiritual experience with regard to those clothes lines. One pole to me represents our beginning with the Lord...that time when we came to know Him as personal Savior. The other reminds me of our end...our journey to Heaven...beginning and end...those support poles stand ready to do their jobs from our spiritual beginning until Heaven.

However, for many Christians they seem to feel that the beginning and end is all there is to the Christian life. Some accept Jesus as Savior and don't consider there's a lot of rope between the beginning and the end. However, most of us know there's a lot to be done from beginning to end. There's a lot to be hung on those lines through our years of living with and for Jesus. We hopefully will come to know Jesus better, a devotional life to be developed so we can know Him better, and there's service for others needed that we do in Jesus name...there's a world that needs Jesus. God knows how He wants to use us but we must be available to His leadership

There's a lot to hang on those ropes in our lives. It's vital we realize our responsibility in it all and not just lope along through life having never hung out anything for Jesus on those ropes of our lives. Rain may bring anxiety, storms may bring problems, and birds may fly over our clothes lines dropping their private drops of ugliness, but negatives will come. Despite the set backs, we are to tend our spiritual clothes lines. We don't even have to take the things off the lines of our lives...Jesus will gather all of those things and then will let us in on it all when we see Him in glory.

Thank You Father not just for Jesus and Heaven to come but for everything You give us the privilege of doing for You. Strengthen us for the tasks You call us to and we will give you the glory. In Jesus' precious name....Amen