When we moved into our new house two years ago, my bedroom became lost in mediocrity. I brought the perfectly functional bedspread from my former home that had been color coordinated with the wallpaper and carpeting, but color trends change, and I was no longer fond of the mint green. I certainly didn't want to use the pastel pallete that was so soothing in my old home. However, I could not find a comforter in a color I wanted, or the quality I needed, for the price I wanted to pay. Therefore, I lived with the mint green and did the best with what I had to make the room pleasant.
Then, one day, voila! I found an expensive spread that was marked down 60%, in a color that was a radical departure from mint green. It was still a little more than I wanted to pay, but I knew that after searching for 2 1/2 years, this was it. I bought it and left it in the bag for a couple of weeks to let the sticker shock wear off a little, and see if I wanted to change my mind.
Finally, one day I was ready to make the commitment. I took the spread out of the bag and dressed the bed from bottom to top with the dust ruffle, comforter and shams. Stepping back, I was pleased with the look of the bed. I was VERY pleased with the look of the bed. It made me happy to look at the bed, but the bed served to point out how much of the rest of the room needed to come into agreement. The bedspread was now the main event, and I saw how everything else had to shift and change to cooperate and reflect the glory.
The walls called for something to complement and celebrate the beauty. The lamps were now too frilly and feminine, and the valances were only a mediocre accompaniment. Not wanting to buy all new things, I searched for a way to minimize extra cost. I saw that the lamps could be spray painted black, and with new shades, would work just fine. I knew I had other valances that were a much better match, but one was being used in the guest room. The question became one disturbing something that was working somewhere else, and repositioning it where it would work even better. I liked the way the guest room looked. That room was finished. If I changed it, I would have two rooms in flux. What would I do in that other bedroom? Would I really be saving myself money if I now had to buy something for that room?
I decided to go for completing my bedroom. In the process of getting out the other valance, I found a lace tablecloth that I was inspired to throw over the rod in the guest room. I tied it up with two sheer curtains, making rosettes at the top with some strategically placed rubber bands and pins. (You would have to see it to picture.) I was happy with the results, and now had what I needed for my room with no extra expense!
With a few other minimal purchases found on sale, like three pictures for the wall purchased at a total of $18, and a large gold mirror I had never hung, the room came into alignment with the bedspread. The finished product was much more than the functional room it had been. It was now a destination, a sanctuary and a retreat.
I began to see how one change in the big picture points out discrepancies in other areas that need to be modified.
Jesus is the biggest change agent in history. When He arrived on earth, everything shifted. Before His advent, there was no way to properly worship God. There had to be a God-man to make the shift and open the way. Mankind was lost in sin and transgression until the gift of salvation caused a change in that condition.
With the advent of this change, everything has to come into alignment. Just as with the bedspread, some old things have to be discarded. Some dated understandings have to take on new life by modifying them with new revelation like the lamps, and some ancient things with promise, can now be accessed and utilized, like the mirror.With the acceptance of the free gift of salvation, we become gifts to mankind and creation. As we shift to come into alignment with Him, we change. He becomes the main event and everything else has to adjust and change to reflect the glory and cooperate with Him.
Just as my walls called for participation in the glory and entrance into that realm caused the room to be a sanctuary, so we become that for the world. Jesus is the change agent. Now, I become one. I am the gift; the change agent in the world around me. Sometimes our own change causes others to make adjustments. My guest room looks different because I removed something to make way for a new look there, too. It took a willingness to go all the way and trust that the outcome that was best for one room would work itself out in the other. In the long run, both were beneficiaries of the change.
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