Embrace the Blue

I walked into our apartment and held back tears. After a long week of travel, I was walking into what was to be our home for the next two years. The apartment itself is a basement apartment that we were told was being used for storage. It has two nice size rooms, a bathroom, and a small kitchen, but the fact that it is in a basement makes it rather gloomy. Also the windows look out onto jungle trees, which are beautiful but they do not help with the light. The furniture and appliances were scarce, but the thing that was staring me in the face as I walked in was a bright blue pleather couch with a gold and black trim. A Velvet Elvis poster would have completed my dismay. 

I knew that life in a third would country would be different. I knew there would be a lot of things I would have to get use to or learn how to “deal” with, but sitting on this blue whale taking up space in the corner of our apartment I can only think of it as God’s colorful way of teaching and stretching me. 

I am learning that God is not trying to merely teach me contentment, but to change my value system. I need to remember that my home is not here in Papua, nor even in Spokane, but in Heaven. I need to hold loosely the things of this world and hold tightly to the treasures we have in Heaven. 

Until then, I won’t let the cobalt creature in the corner defeat me. It is there as a reminder God has my needs here on earth covered, and is preparing a grand home for me in Heaven. Now don’t get me wrong. My relationship with the couch is cordial at best, but in my attempt to make our apartment a little more homey, I have bought things that come in blue. Blue storage tubs for the shelves, blue sheets, blue towels. Our mantra: “embrace the blue.”