Little Boxes

The fun thing about being a parent is it gives you license to make a complete and utter fool of yourself, and it’s perfectly acceptable.  On a near daily basis, I have the opportunity to get in touch with my “silly side”, and in a no hold barred approach, I can sing, dance, speak with a foreign accent, and just all around be someone other than my 9 to 5 self.  My daughter, I believe, cherishes these moments with me above all others.  “Silly Mommy”, she giggles, as she grins her toothy smile.

In our household, part of the silliness seems to be stimulated by music.  I refuse to cancel my cable subscription, not for the television, but for the 24 hour access we have to a wide range of radio songs.  In addition to Christian Contemporary Music, one of our favorites is a station called “Kids Stuff”.  We dance, sing, play instruments, and groove out to kids music from all eras and all countries.  The station provides fertile soil for ones ridiculousness to grow. And I love every minute of it.

Recently during one of our “jam sessions”, I was brought back to a song I had heard from my childhood, entitled, “Little Boxes”, you may remember it:

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

And the people in the houses
All went to the university,
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same,
And there's doctors and lawyers,
And business executives,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

And, as always, I got thinking.  This time, about ticky tack.  And, how the biggest part of my human struggle consists of wanting to be made of it.  So, I can look just the same.  And mostly, have some reassurance that I’ve done it right.  In my little box on the hillside.  With my daughter and our dog. In my drive to the university. Little boxes just the same.

The thing that God is revealing to me, is I’m not cut out for ticky tack.  And no matter how much I try to twist and squeeze and mold myself in that little box, his design for me and for my life, takes on its own shape, in its own time, with its own color, and he doesn’t really call me to be just the same. And, the good news is He doesn’t call you to be either.

While Jesus didn’t talk on ticky tack, he did speak in metaphors, often referring to wide and narrow gates. He selected a motley crew of disciples to follow him through that gate, and in fact asked them to leave their little boxes made of ticky tack on the side of the road.  And I forget this in my ganders through the Urban Barn, secretly longing for the latest in home furnishings.  This whole thing about narrow gates.

So friend, today, let’s be okay with putting our little boxes on the side of our roads, looking ahead to the narrow gate where Jesus calls us to follow.  Let us welcome, celebrate, and be encouraged by the adventure and excitement He will lead us on.  The adventure that does not involve ticky tack, or anything that resembles looking the same.

~You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.~ Psalm 16:11