The Faux Leather Chair

When my husband and I bought our first house, we had very little furniture.
We splurged and bought a new bedroom set before we were married.
We had a few pieces in our family room that we brought from our apartment.
However, most of the house was empty and would stay that way for quite a while.

My husband went to Georgia Tech for his undergraduate degree.
He was in a fraternity, in fact, he was the president of the fraternity in his senior year.
He brought his desk chair from college when he moved into the apartment.
He lived in the apartment for four months before our wedding.

His faux leather chair was truly an eyesore.
It had black electrical tape on one of the arms.
It had a small rip in the back cushion.
The wheels squeaked whenever the chair was moved.

I did not have the heart to say anything to my soon-to-be husband.
He needed a chair in the apartment if he wanted to watch TV at night.
I made a mental note that the chair would go when we had furniture of our own.
What my mental note really said was, the chair will go when I move in.

The TV was another story.
My husband brought the TV from college.
It belonged to the fraternity’s cook.
It was a small, black and white TV with an antenna.

I made a mental note that the TV would go when we could buy one of our own.
What my mental note really said was, the TV will go when I move in.
My husband lived in the apartment by himself until our wedding day.
It was a man’s apartment but it would soon have a woman’s touch.

On a beautiful October day, we were married.
When we came home from our honeymoon, I moved into the apartment.
Our little apartment had some new furniture pieces and our new bedroom set.
Our little apartment also had the faux leather desk chair and the fraternity cook’s TV set.

Friends would sometimes visit on the weekend.
Without fail, my husband’s friends would literally argue over who would sit in that chair.
They liked the faux leather chair with the black electrical tape and the squeaky wheels.
Whoever was in that chair would semi-recline as they sat and talked.

It amazed me.
Even with four chairs around a dinette table and one new sofa, they chose to sit in that chair.
I knew then that the chair would not go any time soon.
I knew that I would have to live with the faux leather chair with the black electrical tape.

Watching TV was a bit trickier.
The small black and white TV with the antenna sat on top of a side table.
It had to be turned in interesting ways to get good reception.
Eventually, a new TV and stand was purchased.

My husband kept the fraternity cook’s TV in the closet, just in case we ever need it.
The TV sat in a closet and the faux leather chair sat in the corner of the living room.
Be patient, I kept telling myself.
Just let him have his chair, I repeated in my head every time I looked at it.

I thought that maybe throwing a comfy blanket on the chair might help.
I thought that if the chair was tucked in a corner of the apartment it would not be so noticeable.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
It was always the chair of choice.

It was not until we bought our first house that the chair moved out of sight.
It was no longer in the living room since that was empty.
It was no longer in the family room because we had grown up; we were home owners.
The chair with the black electrical tape on the arm and the squeaky wheels went upstairs.

The chair went into the room that would be my husband’s office.
It would eventually be placed at a desk that I found for him in an old barn.
It would still have the electrical tape on the arm and it still squeaked.
It was his chair and it mattered to him.

Soon our family of two became a family of three.
A family of three became a family of four and eventually a family of seven.
The faux leather chair with the black electrical tape did not seem to matter so much.
My husband spent his time in the family room and his office was used just for paying bills.

The faux leather chair with the black electrical tape was a memory from another time.
The fraternity cook’s TV that was still in the closet was something to smile about.
We were building a home and making new memories.
We were not throwing away the old ones; however, many of the old things lost their significance.

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24)

We have an old self that must be cast off.
Our old self is unsightly.
Our old self has been taped and repaired.
The rips and tears just keep getting worse.

We think that our old self is comfortable.
We thing that everyone enjoys our old self.
But the One that matters cannot look at the tatters of our sin.
We are torn from the Presence we were created to enjoy.

In God’s hands, no tear is irreparable.
In God’s hands, we are made new.
God the Father sent His Son to be torn for us.
Jesus became the Unsightly One so that we could be beautiful.

God the Father made a mental note.
The old self will be gone when My Spirit moves in.
No more faux holiness.
Rather the new self is created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Amen and amen.