Thursday, August 7, 2014

Of Flour Sacks and Barber Poles


It was inevitable that I would be involved in home renovations. A love of pretty things and creativity in improving what I have is clearly something I inherited from my grandmother.


During the Depression, she didn't merely use the printed cotton flour sacks of her day to make underwear for her daughters, she crocheted lacy trim on them, too. She sewed a frilled cover for a dressing table made of wooden orange crates.
And years later, the doll clothes she made for me were intricate in their style details.


In my own case, I've had a love of old houses from an early age, preferring their crannies and quirks to the sensible lines of the bungalow (ranch) home I grew up in.
  • There was a derelict, paint-chipped house on our school bus route that sparked my renovation imagination. In my mind's eye, I painted the exterior, planted flowers and covered the interior walls with coloured art paper. Hey, when you're 9 years old you have limited DIY skills. 
 Flowers + Paint = Home Sweet Home
  • I mentally decorated our unfinished basement in a red, white and blue colour scheme, c. 1970, complete with barber pole striped teleposts. (What a mercy some dreams don't come true.)

But living in a fallen world, every God-given gift of creativity seems to carry a risk. Discontent and covetousness for starters. And that can lead to greed, idolatry, and the destruction of relationships as we pursue that perfect look.

God tells me I'm to be content with whatever I have (Heb. 13:5).

So can a creative God-given gift for home decor square with the Bible's admonition to be content with such things as you have? I believe it can and I'd love to hear how you have found ways to balance the two.



                                

1 comment:

  1. I think that we were created to desire lovely things. We were, after all, created in God's image and He made nature not just functional, but beautiful when He didn't have to.

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