House Update #6

The A-Team has finished the lengthy 9 day job of pulling out, measuring, photoing, then cataloguing each item that came out of our home before placing it in trash bags or wrapping it in plastic and loading them on trucks. The back yard pile is gone - not even the rocks that were underneath the pile were left. What is left: blackened, scorched ground that slightly resembles the surface of the moon. Standing to the side of the area is the apple tree that has decided to blossom.
The next task for them - wiping down walls and scraping the ceilings. The next task for us - reading through 40 pages of listed items, figuring out the purchase date of each one, and the rough idea of what was paid for them. This weekend the content adjuster will sit down with us Friday-Monday to do just that.
The apartment that we are staying in has indeed been a surreal experience. A lot like being on vacation in your home town. The children, and their friends, have taken every opportunity to swim in the heated pool. Harrison and Chandler have enjoyed the carpet too. Since it isn't found in our house, they have devoted a daily block of time each day rolling across the living room floor and playing 'Blobs'. I figure the enthusiasm will begin to wane soon.
With hearts overflowing with gratitude, all of our needs have been met. Shannon even gave us 'art' to hang on our walls (architectural drawings from one of her college classes). They look quite neat, and fit well with the furniture that is being rented.
The forced purging of our home has given us much pause for thought about what is really necessary and what collected items we really aren't as attached to as previously thought. If you have items or projects that you really haven't touched in over 3 years and will 'some day get to' then chances are you aren't ever going to get to them and they should best be given away or sold. Which leads to another topic -
On Saturday a few ladies (Thank you Mom, Dinah, and Susan!) came over and helped re-scrapbook 2 full albums. It couldn't have been done nearly as quickly without them. What I did come to realize as we were going through the books: pictures being ruined or lost isn't nearly as tragic as one would expect. The wonderful ladies weren't attached or focused on the pictures, had no memories of them, and didn't care personally about them. Though they cared for me - it wasn't because of the pictures that they served our family thus. It was their love for our family that compelled them to glorify their God in this way. I realized that the pictures hadn't been looked at since I did the albums the first time around and had the fire not happened, probably wouldn't have looked at them for some time after. Though memories are fun to reminisce about our outlook isn't supposed to be on what has happened but rather on what is to come. Striving for the prize that lay ahead, not looking back like Lots wife. Though Lot's wife did so in disobedience and the passage has nothing to do about memories of the past, I have reflected that like her consequences of salthood, if my focus is on the past I can become fixed and be of no further good. If I look ahead and run the race set before me then my life will be glorifying and I can be a vessel ready for His use.