Metaphors and Decorations

Do you have a birdie in your house, she asked me with a confused look on her sweet face?
A birdie in my house? I repeated looking as confused as she.
You have a lot of birdhouses, she said pointing.
Which one does the birdie live in? She asked looking around.

Until that moment, I never realized that I do have quite a few birdhouses.
Liking country things the way I do, birdhouses are a whimsical decoration.
Some of the birdhouses were gifts from friends.
Others, I found in the country stores I frequent.

We don’t have a birdie in the house, I said looking at the disappointment on her face.
Then why do you have the birdhouses? She asked really wanting to know.
Why indeed?
The birdhouses are for decoration, I said, which was not a satisfying answer to her.

If anyone asked about my style of decorating, I would say it is a country-shaker style.
Lots of wood, quilts, a Hoosier cabinet in the kitchen, and cast iron pots on the fireplace.
And apparently to a little five-year-old girl, lots of birdhouses
I counted my birdhouses after she left and there were four of them.

Later as I made dinner, I saw the Jim Shore birdhouse that looks like Noah’s Ark.
By then, the little girl had gone home with her mother.
I made a mental note to show her the fifth birdhouse the next time she came over.
Then why do you have the birdhouses? Was a perfectly legitimate question.

I looked around my home with the eyes of that five-year-old girl.
Why do I have an oxen yoke on my wall in the family room?
Why do I have an old wheel hanging on the wall?
Why do I have a weather vane on top of an armoire?

Decoration, maybe.
Sentiment, probably.
Simply because I like the shape of the thing.
Often because it holds some meaning for me.

I sat in my comfy chair, ready to read my book in front of the fire.
I looked at the wall across from where I was sitting.
I smiled and wondered what the little five-year-old girl would say.
There on the wall are three old game boards.

Why do your have game boards on your wall, I could hear her say?
I tried to imagine my house without these things.
Whimsical to some.
Cozy to me.

I though about how an object has a certain function.
I tend to think out of  the box.
An object’s function becomes something totally different to me.
It has new life and a new home.

There is a pig dressed as a chef who holds a chalkboard sitting atop my Hoosier.
There are old tins on top of bookshelves.
There is an old school desk tucked in the corner of my dining room.
A old metal lunch pail and the Blue Back Speller sit on top as if waiting to be used.

Whimsy finds its place here.
Things have a story.
Things are old but not forgotten.
The charm is in their character.

He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But when Jesus turned and looked at the disciples, He rebuked Peter. “Get behind Me, Satan!” He said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Then He called the crowd to Him along with His disciples and said, “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
(Mark 8:31-38)

Jesus was talking to the crowd and His disciples about what it means for Him to be the Messiah.
Jesus was teaching the people what it means to be identified with Him.
Jesus’ words are a call to get serious about our faith.
The cross is not to be a decoration that we display with whimsy.

We tend to talk about carrying our cross as if it is a metaphor.
How dare we!
Our annoying boss, the difficult family member is not the cross we must bear.
Jesus is telling His disciples that suffering will be their destiny as well.

Cross bearing is not a metaphor.
The cross is not a decoration.
When we confess Jesus Christ as Lord, we have an excitement about our faith.
That excitement quickly disappears in the context of suffering, rejection, and death.

What does this say to us in our culture?
Are we ashamed to be a Christian and ashamed to be identified with Jesus?
Are we confessing Jesus in the midst of a pagan culture?
Are we ready to lose our life for Him and for the Gospel?

Cross bearing is serious business.
We must be intentional and resolute in our testimony.
We must confess Christ to an unbelieving world.
We must press on unashamedly even in the face of suffering.