House of Cards

My youngest daughter is packing to go back to college.
I blinked and May turned into August.
This is the time of year the bins get pulled from the basement.
That is the way we pack and it seems very efficient.

Clothes get taken off the closet rack still on their hangars, folded, and placed in the bins.
When we get to her college dorm room, she simply lifts them out of the bins and hangs them up.
We have moved five children this way.
It doesn’t make it any easier.

This is right.
This is the way of things.
This is her junior year.
We only have to do this a few more times.

She has taken over the room across the hall as well as her own room.
When her brother and his new wife surprised us over the weekend, they were displaced.
They had to sleep in another room since college central was occupying my son’s old room.
They didn’t seem to mind; my son remembered doing the same thing.

I thought of the transitions.
I thought of the moving out and coming back and moving out permanently.
I thought about the tales these rooms could tell.
They have chronicled life as it has been lived in this house.

After seeing the Pixar exhibit, we have watched quite a few Pixar movies.
The other night we chose to watch, Inside Out.
It is a story of five personified emotions as they live inside a little girl named Riley’s head.
It is a clever story that we have all pondered in some way at one time or another.

I remember a scene with the Joy, Sadness, and imaginary friend, named Bing Bong.
They are in Imagination Land trying desperately to get back to the headquarters of Riley’s mind.
They pass many attractions, one of which is a House of Cards.
Two times in the movie, the House of Cards is knocked down.

This frustrates the workers who built it.
After the second time, one of the workers says, I fold.
That’s how it is with a House of Cards.
There is no strong foundation to hold it up.

As I was down the basement, I noticed all the things that are being stored there.
They are stored neatly in bins on industrial sized shelves in the unfinished part of our basement.
They have a piece of masking tape on them which clearly labels to whom the bin belongs.
There are teacher supplies from my one daughter; there are bins with college memorabilia.

Our newly married son just brought a twin sized bed frame, mattress, and box spring home.
Mom and Dad, could we keep this here until we get a house someday? He asked.
Of course, was our answer since thankfully there is room.
Our oldest daughter has some things in the attic along with my son who is a lawyer.

Memories are stored away for another time.
I imagine it will be a bit like Christmas when these things are retrieved and reopened.
In the meantime, we are the keepers of the treasures.
I realized that those treasures are what gives our home its strong foundation.

It is not the fact that the treasures are tangible things.
That is actually secondary.
It is the fact that these treasures are part of their lives that they are not willing to part with yet.
We will not hold onto them forever but for now they are part of the foundation.

I cannot imagine living in a House of Cards.
I cannot imagine the slightest thing knocking it down.
Memories go down deep.
Memories are that which you build upon.

I smile when I think about it.
Bookshelves still hold many of their favorite books.
Some of the items I may never know the significance of, but they do.
When each of them get their own house, then these things will be sorted through and moved.

By then the foundation is set, and more stories have been added to the building of our lives.
They will be pouring a foundation of their own.
It will be strong.
It will take years to build upon.

If they do it right, there will be no House of Cards.
If they do it right, there will be only solid ground on which to build.
If they do it on their own, then the winds of change will cause it to sway.
If they build it with the Lord, their house will stand.

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like  wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. (Matthew 7:24-27)

Foundations are so important.
Building your house on sand is like building a house of cards.
It will not stand when the storms rage against it.
It will crumble because it was built with expediency not precision.

Building your house on rock makes a solid foundation.
The storms of life will rage but your house will stand.
You have a foundation that will hold firm no matter what comes against it.
You will have a foundation that will last.

Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain. (Psalm 127:1)
Unless the Lord build the house, the builders can only say, I fold.
Out of frustration and weariness, the builders want to give up.
Nothing will hold their house together.

However, with the Lord as the Builder, nothing can tear the house apart.
We will never say, I fold.
We can only say, I stand.
What God builds will last.

When you look in your basement or your attic and see treasures, rejoice.
Rejoice because those treasures are part of your foundation.
With the Lord, you are building something solid, something that will last.
No house of cards here.

The Master Builder makes sure of that.