For Wilshire Baptist Church
In Wilshire’s Epiphany class we’ve been looking at some of Jesus’ parables and specifically the ones in the Gospel of Matthew that describe the kingdom of Heaven. Last Sunday we ended the study with this one from Matthew 13:52:
“He said to them, ‘Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.’”
Among our discussion points was the idea that this was not about “out with the old and in with the new,” but about bringing the best of both old and new into play. After all, Jesus said earlier in that book, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
As we talked about that, the idea of bringing old and new treasures together resonated with me because that day happened to be the fifth anniversary of the day LeAnn and I merged our lives and all of our worldly possessions in the house we built together. That included old things we each brought to our marriage and some new things we’d accumulated in a brief year including some wedding gifts.
LeAnn and I could have arranged all those items ourselves but we thought it would be interesting and actually smart to let a neutral party have a go at it. We already had decorator and Wilshire friend Barbara Floyd help us decide where to put our mix of his and hers furniture. That was important to decide before that moving day because we were paying the movers by the hour. But the more delicate and potentially sensitive task was taking all of our decorative pieces, knickknacks and mementos and deciding where they should go. Many of those items represented pieces of our personal stories that had been decades in the writing before we had turned a new page together.
So we emptied boxes of stuff out on tables and countertops and even the floor and watched as Barbara gently picked up each item, examined it, looked around the rooms and chose a perfect place for it. She didn’t know what belonged to me or to LeAnn. She placed items where they would make the best statement about our new home and our life together as a couple.
Looking around our rooms today, everything is exactly where it should be. What’s more, after five years I can’t recall the origins of some items. Was it mine? Was it hers? Is it old? Is it new? I don’t know. I’ve come to believe that God has gifted me with a cloudy memory – or a healthy ambivalence – about trinkets and treasures. This blurring of the past has helped me embrace today and tomorrow. And the blending of old and new has helped create a new way of living.