Towels & dishes & sandals...

 "Can I use a towel as He did?  Towels and dishes and sandals, all the ordinary sordid things of our lives, reveal more quickly than anything what we are made of.  It takes God Almighty Incarnate in us to do the meanest duty as it ought to be done."
~Oswald Chamber, My Utmost for His Highest

I remember well the days when I was a young, busy mother of five.  There were loads of towels and heaps of dishes and the mud room was lined with dirty boots and shoes and flip flops.  It seemed my work was never done.  Then there were the rare days when someone brought a hearty casserole in a tin pan that didn't need to be returned to the giver.  Why does a casserole like that taste so good? And why does sitting at the neighbor's table for a meal feel so luxurious?  I remember gathering the children from the grandparents after a hard day's work to find them fed and bathed and in their jammies.  These are  loving gifts that can only be given with the hands and the heart.

This past weekend was a week of towels (and wash cloths and rags) and dishes and sandals.  The newest grandchild was born and the Littles were with us while Mommy and Daddy were away.  Can I use a towel like Jesus did?  I hope so.  Just when I think God might not be using me, way out here in the middle of nowhere, He makes me understand that my assignment is simple.  With love, towel off little girls after a bath; with love, cook up a healthy meal for my people and joyfully wash up the dishes;  with love, strap on little sandals several times a day and then strap on my own so together we can go out to play in the sunshine.  Our chores are ordinary, constant, unseen by many, but may we do them out of love, and scatter joy wherever we are.  When the Littles are not here, I ask God to remind me that my Dearheart is also in need of towels and dishes and sandals boots.  Just because there are less of us at home, does not mean that I neglect doing the same things with hands and heart for him, for us.