Just What We Needed, When We Needed It
My sweet husband and I recently invested in one of our first “big purchases” as a married couple, and man oh man am I praising Jesus from the rooftops for this one. After four months of sleeping cramped in a full bed, we finally made the decision it would be best for our bodies, and best for our marriage, if we had more space while we slept. Hence the big purchase of our king bed (insert royal trumpets sounding here)!
That’s where I’m writing from this morning, tucked back in with coffee in hand, after packing lunches and kissing my sweet husband out the door. And as I sit here the reality of our new season of life is sinking in hard, and I can’t help but smile.
When we were picking out bedding for our wedding registry I was incredibly particular with what we chose. This would be our bed, our bedroom, our space. I had my heart set on an a "certain look": an all white quilt and duvet comforter from Pottery Barn, complete with a white, rod-iron bed frame. Our little room would be picturesque, should anyone care to take a tour of our little apartment.
Sometimes, you simply can not plan for the unexpected, no matter how certain you are of what’s coming.
The humor in it all is that the quilt and duvet and white, rod-iron frame lasted us all of four months before we upgraded from a full to a king mattress and none of it fit any longer. We had outgrown my picture-perfect bed much faster than expected. I lamented that I wished I had only known we would be buying a bigger mattress so soon so that we could have registered for the King size of all my beloved items. Sometimes, you simply can not plan for the unexpected, no matter how certain you are of what’s coming.
So now our wonderfully comfy and spacious king mattress sits on the floor, covered in mismatch blankets and an oversize quilt Nathan’s Gramsie passed down to us. It looks nothing like my Pottery Barn dream bed, and yet, I love it all the more. This quilt is simple. We didn’t buy it, it doesn’t match and yet it’s exactly what we needed when we needed it. Purchasing a new mattress meant saving until we could afford it. The news of losing a job the next week meant budgeting more and not flippantly spending money to outfit our bed to match the picture in my head.
This quilt reminds me every morning as I make our bed that life has changed, and it will continue to change. We didn’t plan four months into marriage to be needing new bedding, not being able to use what I had dreamed of any longer. We didn’t plan that four months into marriage both of us would be sitting at a crossroads, knowing God was calling us from the jobs we had, yet having NO CLUE where He desired for us to go next. Only He knows and is putting those pieces together one day at a time.
Much like the way this quilt on our bed was made. A pile of mismatch fabric cut in all different shapes and sizes does not appear to make the bigger picture. But one day at a time the quilt is assembled and begins to take shape. Today, as I’m cuddled under it with my coffee, I see it in all it’s glory - its simple and imperfect and mismatched glory. It’s not at all like what I planned for my married bedding, and yet it covers us perfectly. It’s just what we needed when we needed it.
God does the exact same thing in our lives. He takes each day He cut out for us and sews it to the next and the next. As I sit here and can not fathom where we’re headed or how anything will fit together, God knows the bigger picture. He knows what the quilt of our lives will look like and He knows its future glory – its simple and imperfect and mismatched glory.
This new season we are entering into, much sooner that I could have ever planned, is mismatched and imperfect. It calls us to simplicity and complete trust in God. We don’t know the bigger picture yet, but God remains faithful and He covers us perfectly. He knew this season of our lives would be just what we needed, and He gave it to us just when we needed it.