What I did on my summer vacation

My first day back at home is always dedicated to trying to get the house back in order. It's not that I like cleaning. I don't. It's that I like disorder even less. Three busy little kids, a hyper dog, even nature itself all conspire to constantly prove the truth of the second law of thermodynamics. So I got to work yesterday...

After a couple of monsoon storms, and lots of fertilizer before we left, small children could get lost in the grass...


Then there is always the explosion of the luggage you return with. Plus we didn't even make our bed before we left...


The computer desk was a disaster...


Sorting through the stack of mail, I found this. The US Post Office is apparently the master of understatement...


Four years in Arizona, and not a spot of rust. One week in Michigan, and the thing is covered in it. You think it's a little humid there?


But here is the best part. When I come home from work tomorrow, everything will be right where it was when I left. It's glorious. Don't get me wrong... I love my family. But three mobile kids, one newborn, a very busy wife and the house can sometimes look like a bomb went off when I get home. Cleaning up at night seems like a pointless activity since the kids will undo it all in the first 5 minutes they are awake. It's frustrating, to constantly try to keep everything in it's place, only to have it fall apart around you.

But here is what I learn on my summer vacations, as I struggle just to stay ahead of the chaos. It wasn't supposed to be this way. My quest for order is only a poor imitation of the One who made me. He brought order, light, stars, earth, plants out of the formless void. And it was good, at least until we screwed it up. After that, the very ground is cursed because of Adam's sin, and only "by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread." As I try to bring order to my little corner of the world, to make it good as it were, it all fights against me. The kids throw toys, the grass grows out of control, the steel rusts. And I can almost hear God saying to me "See... now you can start to see how I feel." After all, the entire Old Testament is basically one long history of God's children rebelling against him. Forbidden fruit, murderous brothers, golden calves, grumbling in the wilderness. One story after another. And yet God is always there, restoring order, giving grace. Without Him, the world would go straight to hell in a handbasket, literally.

And it's not just the Old Testament either. So when I start to get frustrated, I try to remember that just as my kids seem to be able to destroy the house in 5 minutes, my rebellion against my Father is even greater. And just as I try to pick up the mess, so He has defeated the chaos and death created by our sin.