Saved – We are a new beginning AND always a work in progress

Are you a saver or do you take great pleasure in decluttering?  I find myself, as I’ve gotten older, that balancing the importance of holding onto things of sentimental value vs the feeling I get when throwing out the old is difficult.  I’ve collected many things over the years.  There was the time of collecting unicorns (not the real ones), angels, stuffed animals (and even stuffed animal slippers – I had quite the collection).  We still have boxes and boxes of photographs that my mother-in-law saved which, now, unfortunately are taking up closet space we no longer have.  How do I honor my husband’s desire to keep everything that has “value” to him but not to save everything AND find a place to put it all?  The experts will tell you that more importan are the memories we hold onto in our hearts rather than the items themselves.  Saved is also a familiar term used from a religious aspect.  Many religions use that word as the beginning of a true relationship with Jesus Christ.  They’ve been saved from their old life of sin and entering into their new life, cleansed.  How many times do we get saved, because I know I am far from perfect and need to be saved daily.  I may snap at my husband, get impatient or disagree with a family member, or fail to be kind to someone (even if it’s just in my thoughts).  It doesn’t mean that we’ve fallen out of favor with Jesus or that we no longer are believers.  You and I are always a work in progress.  Does Jesus look at each of our lives from just one act of love or a single act of uncaring? I believe not!  I believe Jesus loves me for who I am, for who his Father in Heaven created me.  He knows I am a sinner; but I realize that he is correcting me, pruning me and creating me into a beautiful work of art.  He is getting rid of the clutter that accumulates in each of us and always clearing space for more important things that need to be saved.   Let’s spend some time contemplating the clutter in our lives this week and how we can do a better job of being saved every single day.  Amen!

“that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”  Romans 10:9