The Garage Sale

Later, much later, after a horrendous ride to pick up Robin they returned home. Mary had to stopped twice and pulled over on the way there so it was with great relief Mary arrived at the house. The wonderful surprise was that the horrible torrential rains closer to Windsor never hit Amherstburg. Oh, they got a little rain but all in all the damage to Mary’s things was miniscule. Everything was wet alright but there hadn’t been the great gust of winds in Amherstburg that Mary experienced while driving to Windsor. What a relief that was. So despite a lot of things being wet there was a good chance much of her stuff got a good cleaning and nothing more.
The next morning Mary and Carolynn emptied out glass vases, dishes, and other things that had been rain collectors the day before. Some things, like pictures, just got thrown out. By the end of the day, Mary was tired of agreeing with all those people that suggested the obvious: all her stuff got wet. But garage sales were like that; filled with trivial remarks, lots of greed, and usually some happy people walking away with a bargain or two.
In Mary’s case the clients walked away with many, many deals as she just wanted to get rid of all the clutter and so she had priced it accordingly. Much of the stuff was ridiculously reduced to 25cents. At the end of the day despite the huge amount of things sold Mary took in about $115. Another five dollars the next day brought her total to $120.
Because the second day of a sale is always slower Mary was not disappointed in her take that day. She was ready to pack it in by 11am. Between Robin, Mary and Carolynn, who had showed up, they packed up boxes that Mary had gone over to No Frills to pick up. Afterwards, Mary drove down two car loads of stuff to the St. Vincent de Paul store located conveniently two blocks from their house.
On her return Mary was relieved to see her yard emptied of all the “things”. Her life felt freer. In the front yard, at the end of the driveway, they had collected all the large items that didn’t sell. The three of them had laughed together when they saw how quickly scavengers came to pick through the leftovers. By the next morning when Mary looked out in the dark there was very little she would have to take to the dump. If she was lucky she could get Robin to use his saw and cut all the wood up for fire. Or at least the more manageable smaller size of these items might be taken away by the garbage men. She would see.
Despite all the hard work it took to pull the sale off and despite the minimal return Mary felt, in the bigger picture, that the sale had been a success because she had gotten rid of the things that had cluttered her life and her heart. There was more stuff in side but in due time she would pack it up and get rid of it on Kijiji or like the miniature dolls she had collected she would send them off to her 7 year old grand niece who would just love them!
Although Mary deposited the money in her account which she thought she might transfer to visa Mary wondered if there was a better place it might be used more in God’s kingdom. One person and her husband had come to mind. They both had showed up separately at her sale and were downcast because their car had bit the dust. Mary wanted to give it to them but competing voices had suggested otherwise. The sensible thing was to use it towards their bills!
Yet Mary knew it was not settled inside her spirit and wouldn’t be until God reassured her either way. You see, during the second morning of the sale Mary had rushed into the house to use the washroom. While inside Mary overheard an evangelist on the television say something that had an impact on her heart. He was talking about money and sewing it as a seed. He said, “If you hold on to your money, what you hold on to will be the most it will ever be, but if you plant it into the kingdom it will be the least it will ever be!” Mary got all excited about this at the time and shared it with Robin and Carolynn. Therefore, even though she had deposited the money in the bank Mary was going to wait to hear more from God. And this she did.