Clothes Lines (04/13/2024)

Recently, while driving around town on errands, I spotted clothes hanging on a clothesline in a back yard. I must admit my mind immediately took me to faraway places and distant times. I remembered my mother hanging clothes in our back yard and often being the one assigned to take them down and fold them as I went. I remembered my own clothes lines and how I loved the smell of air-dried clothes. I recalled that clothesline time was also connecting time; neighbors chatted as they aired their laundry. We kids hated that part because more times than not, our mother would learn of something we’d done at school or in the neighborhood. Laundry days were “come clean days” in more ways than one.  

Just as “more isn’t always better,” modern conveniences don’t always improve our lives. Our modern world has lost something; it seems like taking one step forward has led us two steps backward. Often our relationships with our neighbors aren’t as strong as they used to be because we rarely see them. And the time we save isn’t spent searching for a cure; it’s usually spent on or with a device. We’ve lost so many of our useful human connections like clothes lines and replaced them with artificial connections like Facebook friends and 24-hour news stations.

As I drove, I wished I could have clotheslines again; however, our neighborhood doesn’t allow them.  And that got me to thinking about what other freedoms I had ceded to unknown and unseen entities in my pursuit to “get along” and “fit in.”  Power, like everything else in our lives, isn’t bad in and of itself; however, power can be wielded to take away the freedom of others rather than empowering others.  

And once again, I realized how the LORD had gotten to me through a back door. I thought I was thinking about clotheslines, and the LORD took me the back way to self-reflection and a desire to live more fully the life He created me to live. Our LORD so wants us to be free.

Think about it. The LORD created us to be free of death and sin, but we allowed someone else to convince us that we could choose better than the LORD. The LORD saw our suffering under the hands of Egypt and brought us out to freedom through the Red Sea and a 40-year exodus. And when we couldn’t find our way ourselves, the Almighty Father send his only-begotten Son to atone for our sins even though He was sinless; dying He destroyed our death and rising He restored our life. And we are called to choose life, to choose Christ, to choose to deny self, pick up our own crosses, and follow in His footsteps.

During this Easter Season, as we celebrate Jesus’ victory over sin and death for us and for our salvation, let us take time to consider what we are choosing daily. Let us consider how we might more fully live the lives we’ve been given. Let us consider how we might more meaningfully and lovingly engage with our neighbors, our sisters and brothers. Let us consider what goodness is coming from our exercise of the free will the LORD has given to each of us.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.