Space Available

I have a fascination with boxes. I don’t understand it, but I can’t pass one without having to open it, even when I know that it’s empty. I think it’s actually the emptiness that appeals to me and all the ways that space could be filled. Maybe that’s why I also love to look at empty houses, and day-dream about the possibilities for vacant retail spaces. I passed one today. It was a tidy little store-front in a quaint little mall that was just begging to be filled up with stuff and patronized by people who have been craving just that thing in just that space. I wondered what I would fill it up with.

As I played out my little daydream, I know you’ll think it’s strange, but I even got excited by the idea of taking over a space that had been wrecked and left in shambles. There would be closets to clean out and shelves to move around and order that needed creating. I love that! While I was picturing myself standing in front of an illusionary junky closet, the Lord met me at the threshold. In a flash I saw my own junky closet and understood that I’m like the box, the house, and the store. He wants to clean out the garbage, rearrange the furniture and create some order. He wants to fill me up with the good things that people are longing for. His creativity is boundless and who knows what will go in once all the junk is on the curb. I love that He loves that too – the excitement of creating order out of chaos and filling an empty space.

This isn’t a new idea for you I’m sure. It just struck me today in a kind of tender way. I don’t often think of God in terms that are as tangible as my own feelings, but where do I think they come from? The same need for order and purpose that I feel is evident in all God does. He delights in having the freedom to make the most of His creation, without encumbrance, to His glory. Today, He just wanted me to know that and to apply the principle to myself. Now I’m sharing it with you.

God has a divine purpose for you even if you don’t know it yet. He can’t walk past you without lifting the lid and imagining all the treasure He could hide away there. He can’t look into the rooms of your life without imagining the new light fixtures and easy chairs. He can’t pass your parking lot without the desire to fill it with people who’ve come to enjoy what you have to offer. You are, I am, a daydream in the process of becoming a reality. A void being filled. Chaos being ordered. Purpose being reclaimed. But we have to remember that the box doesn’t dictate what treasure it holds, whether a tidy cluster of paper-clips (be still my heart) or a rock collection. The house doesn’t select its décor. The retail space doesn’t demand to be a soda-fountain or a tire shop. They all simply hold the plans and dreams of their owner; expressing without resistance the purpose they were given.

It makes me smile to think that God gets the same flutter of excitement that I do over the thought of endless possibilities, but especially so when I think that it’s me He’s eyeing as His heart flutters. I want to be truly open (like a box), abandoned (like a house) and available (like space for rent) to whatever He’s dreaming up for me so that His joy in creating will be evident in His creation. To His glory.