God bless grandma & those cheese slice wrappers.

My grandma & grandpa’s house was a big time capsule of the past.  It was great digging around in her stuff, looking through ornament cupboards & helping g-ma with cleanouts – because there was always some great fun & treasure to be had.

One thing I wasn’t so sure of is why g-ma saved the plastic wrappers off of cheese singles.  You know, the really thin, crispy plastic wrapper that comes off the processed cheese slices.  Why oh why grandma?!  I was convinced grandma was a hoarder, or a miser to keep something like that.  Sure, jars, old magazines & ornate curio’s….. fine – but cheese wrappers were not in that calibre of these worthy items…… surely!

I later came to understand that my grandma lived through a world war & the Great Depression, which gripped the world & Australia in the 1930’s.  Extreme poverty forced that generation to make the most of the very little they had.  Literally.  My generation & life experience was only one of peace & material abundance, so I could not imagine the value of something as trivial as a plastic cheese wrapper!  I had perceived my grandma in a framework, according to my life experiences; where in essence, she was a survivor of circumstances beyond my understanding, where the impact of that period on her life was so great, it meant she still lived out some of those behaviours today.  My viewpoint changed from being annoyed at all the clutter, to one of respect, admiration and the ability to let it go, because it was more important to accept & understand her as a person.

Ohh such a young foolish punk I was!!  Devoid of understanding or experience

Your life experience, past and present, contribute greatly to shaping your beliefs, ideals, behaviours; and conversely the framework through which you will view & relate to the world and other people.  Consider briefly the following questions for yourself:

• When & where were you born?  What generation are you from?
• Who raised you (mum & dad, single parent, another relative)?
• Where did you live (country, regional, city – house, unit, caravan, tent)?
• What social demographic did you grow up in (blue collar, white collar, rich, poor)?
• What is your ethnicity?  What is your religion or beliefs in life?
• Do you have brothers or sisters?  Are you an only child?
• What is your history of education?  What is your history of employment?
• What significant moments have you had in your life so far?

Now consider the countless combinations of answers for these questions you can put together for the 6.8 billion around the world!!  One persons idea of ‘normal’ can be light years apart from another persons concept ‘normal’!

Even though over half the world’s population live in extreme poverty (live on less than $2 per day) we can think we are poor, because we compare our circumstance to those around us that have more.  We would have no idea what it would be like for a kid growing up to live on less than $2 per day.  This is an extreme example, but it illustrates we cannot assume to have a full understanding or judge who others are as people, by our own experiences.  That does not void our experiences or make them less valid, but we need to be aware how our experience can be unique and limited.

Equally, life experience serves to be a wonderful chance to build relationships.  We can draw closer to others through ‘shared’ or ‘similar experiences’.  We can learn greatly from others who have experiences that are different to ours; or we can share with others our own experiences to comfort or encourage them.  Our differences should not divide us, but unite us.  Life is all about our experience and for us as Christians, how we go through those experiences with God.

For myself, sometimes (hmmm…..maybe all the time?!) I can be that way toward God.  I can’t understand why he doesn’t answer my prayer or give me what I want – “C’mon God, it makes PERFECT reasonable sense in my mind why that should happen for me?!!”  Then on the flip side, “Why did this happen?  C’mon God, you know I don’t need this??” (but apparently I did!).  I can be galaxies away from even comprehending why God does what he does.  There’s a great passage in the bible

 8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
      “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
 9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
      so my ways are higher than your ways
      and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9,  NLT Surfers Bible)

I actually think my brain would melt & run out of my ears if I truly comprehended all that was in God’s minds (full reps to the big guy for not disclosing all & sundry to me….seriously….thanks!).  Whilst that can be the case, we don’t have to feel isolated by that either  – like you’re in the dark. I remember one time I was baffled about some things in life & a friend shared this verse with me:

3 When clouds are heavy, the rains come down.
Whether a tree falls north or south, it stays where it falls.
4 Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.
5 Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things. (Ecclesiastes 11:3-5, NLT Surfers Bible)

While I couldn’t find the answer, or reconcile the thoughts I had in my head….. through this passage I understood, I’m not going to understand everything….. and that’s OK!  I then got the mother load of peace home delivered to my soul.  I felt relaxed & at ease that everything was where it needed to be…. even if I didn’t get it.

Thank you to the all knowing God & the not knowing very much….me.  J

Something to think about:

Think through your life experiences, past & present.  How would you sum up how these frame the way you see the world?

How different would your world view be to friends that are close to you?

What areas could you bring light to for others through your life experiences?  What areas could you possibly closed minded in or not able to understand others in?

Is there something in your life that you don’t understand?  What light does Isaiah 55:8-9 & Ecclesiastes 11:3-5 shed on this situation?

What feelings do you have when you can’t understand something in your life? ….how can you approach these moments from what is taught in these passages?