The Spin Cycle

A couple of months ago I wrote about the benefits of the linen garments and bedding made by my friend, Rosemary. Another good friend purchased linen sheets and wrote, "I haven't slept this well in years. And as the instructions said, the linen gets softer and softer with each washing. I thought how like us this is! The more the Lord puts us through His spin cycle, the softer we become toward Him and others."

I told her I would have to write this in a blog! It certainly resonates with my life, ever since John and I walked back down that wedding aisle, hand-in-hand. Literally across continents we have been in a virtual "spin cycle" of the Lord's doing, and through five different countries, languages, foods and currencies, we tried to keep up! Then once we got back home we went straight down to Mexico where we have been getting John's house ready to sell. Scrubbing floors and walls, painting rooms, holding yard sales, hauling trash, and fixing things that didn't work, we continued to spin until we thought we would drop of exhaustion.

In the very midst of all this activity, my mom fell ill and was hospitalized, so I returned home to spend 4 days in the hospital with her, at her bedside. She recovered from her sepsis infection and went home, and the spin cycle went into high gear as I returned to New Mexico to help John finish up. Now that we are finally just on the other side of all this whirling and washing, we look back and wonder: "Did you make us softer, Lord?" The answer is a clear yes. We could not have survived all of that without Him. We were totally dependent upon him from the mountains of Israel to the little neighborhood in Farmington, New Mexico, to my mom's hospital room. In the midst of the spin cycle He quietly worked in us to form us as a ministry team, as partners painting side by side, as lovers, as husband and wife, esteeming the other above ourselves.

Yes, it's true. Like precious linen fabric, we become softer - toward our Master and those He places in our lives for His glory.