A Stack of Old Suitcases

In one corner of my living room I have a stack of old suitcases.  One has greeting cards inside, one has scrap book materials (I love other people's, but I'm not patient enough to work on one) one has odd stuff I don’t know what to do with and a few are empty.  My aunt said they look very Pottery Barn-ish  which I take to be a compliment.  Really it means my old mismatched suitcases looked like an ‘on purpose’ grouping like those fabulous things one can find in those high-end stores and catalogs,  both of which I fancy but from which I've never made a purchase.

In actuality the old beat up cases each have a history—some family pieces, one picked up at a yard sale, one discovered in an old trailer.  I cleaned them and lessened the musty smell but they still wear the marks of their well-traveled lives.   I think people are the same way: you can dress us up but we still have all our old football injuries and childhood scars.

Like the stack of cases in my living room, sometimes people can so compliment each other it looks like they’re family.  I love looking at newspaper announcements of 75^th wedding anniversaries.  Husbands and wives grow to resemble each other over the years.  There’s a nature vs nurture argument somewhere in there but I’ll pass it by.  Perhaps growing to resemble each other is a physical manifestation of God’s greater intention that the two shall become one.  From my work in nursing homes I also know that it isn’t uncommon for long-time married couples to die close together in time—like one doesn’t know how to exist without the other.  Growing old together is a beautiful testament to God’s love and concern for our human needs and desires.

Do it:  Sometimes the collectibles we have around the house seem tacky or lack purpose so we tuck them in a closet or put them out at a yard sale.  Groupings of like things, however, look great!  Gather together your items—all the blue glass or pottery items you have for instance or all the old keys or old suitcases and group them together in a display. Use shadow boxes, a low shelf below a coffee table, a mantle or window sill to display your things. Your old stuff might seem right out of the pages of a hip catalog in no time!

And the next time you see an old married couple, note their similar appearance & marvel at God's design for abiding love!

Have a creative day!
Susan

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