On the way to an appointment on Friday The Salesman called to tell me about a yard sale at a neighbors house. He described the yard sale house on our street as “the one with architecture similar to our home when we lived in in North Carolina.” I didn’t need a house number, The Salesman’s description helped me to know exactly which house, and the owners, that were having the yard sale. He continued to say that he didn’t stop because he was on his way out-of-state; but, knew that since we both really liked the house, he just wondered if I’d want to go check it out. I’m pretty sure that I had just been given a license to shop.
Though I didn’t have anything in mind to buy, I went up the street and browsed the yard sale items; but, I kept being drawn to the architectural details of the home. The Salesman and I both enjoy architecture. So, I may have taken two, or ten, pictures of the architecture… Okay, I did take a lot of beautiful pictures of the architecture – to be shared at a later time. I tried to look at the sale items; but, nothing really stood out and someones cigarette smoke was interfering with my browsing, so I didn’t buy anything the first time I went. But, I did take all those architectural pictures and that was so enjoyable to me. I was glad The Salesman had called to share the sale with me.
Later in the day, I went back up the street as they were packing everything up and tried to focus on the sale items and not the architectural elements. At the last table, my eyes were drawn to one particular cherub in a set of two cherub statues. I asked for a price and was told six dollars for the pair. As I looked more closely at this one cherub who was draped with a blanket, I noticed he had been broken and glued back together; but, still I was drawn to him. I pointed out that this cherub was broken and ran my fingernail along the multiple cracks to highlight the breaks. I pulled out my glittery coin purse because I really thought this statue was beautiful though broken. The attendant asked me how much money I had and I counted my silver coins before her which totaled 65 cents, and she responded with “take them both.”
So when I arrived home, I *had* to take pictures at the fence row of my treasures. My sixty-five cent treasures. I was so glad The Salesman encouraged me to go to the yard sale. The statues were a perfect match for our bedroom. But, it wasn’t until later when I was in the bed gazing at the one with the blanket did I realize how much it reminded me of someone who recently encountered a breakdown in his health and went for help with his brown blanket in tow… I will now forevermore refer to this statue as the *Cherub with a Brown Blanket*. It was in that moment that my eyes studied the other cherub in the set and thought there’s a herald who proclaims The Lamb of God… Could it be that I just bought statues that in certain ways, represent us? The *This is Us* of statues that are a perfect match.
Beauty in the broken.
I had purchased two Austin sculptures which I found after researching, make museum reproductions from great art collections… I happened upon a treasure in more ways than one. My *Cherub with a Brown Blanket* looks amazing at my bedside. And, The Salesman has decided that the *Lamb-loving Herald* should not flank his nightstand because it would get broken and then it would be more of a perfectly matched set. The *Lamb-loving Herald* looks great on my antique writing desk where By The Lamp Light started.
When I woke and read the Bible on Saturday morning, the very first verse I read was Psalm 99 verse 1:
This Scripture reading of “He rules enthroned between the wings of the cherubim” was like the Lord’s approval on my sixty-five cent purchase. I took The Word with me as I prayer walked the yard. It seemed that even the rays of sunlight were highlighting the phrase that had thrilled my heart.
God is so good.
He and His Word never fail. They are alive and active. The Word speaks, leads, and can even give a confirmation, or blessing, for a sixty-five cent purchase. And then, didn’t the earth shake and quake on Sunday morning?
Hallelujah.