Soft Sheets And Lumpy Pillows

Soft Sheets And Lumpy Pillows

“For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.” (Hebrews 13:14)

I have always loved the idea of having a guest room in my home, but it hasn’t been very many years that we’ve actually had the space to have one. It was exciting to prepare a room in which my beloved family and friends, visitors to our church, or people the Lord brought our way would be able to comfortably sojourn.

I set about painting it a warm but restful color and decorated with an eye toward France—dried lavender, soft colors, a side-by-side English and French Bible translation. Quiet clock? Check. Little dish of candies? Check. Linens for bathing? Check! The most important element, of course, was the bedding. I piled it on à la The Princess and the Pea so our guests would have a restful night’s sleep.

After I finished preparing the room, a friend joked that perhaps we should add some lumpy pillows. After all, we didn’t want people to become so comfortable that they never wanted to leave . . . right? Her comment reminded me of when our son would not get up on time in the morning, and we finally rolled some marbles under his sheets so that it would be more comfortable to get out of bed than to stay put.

We can become too comfortable in this world, too, which in actuality is not our home. We are just passing through, strangers in the land, as Scripture puts it. Thérèse of Lisieux reminds us, “The world’s thy ship and not thy home.” God gives us many pleasant, comfortable things to help us see his goodness in the land of the living, but we mustn’t become so comfortable that we don’t want to depart someday for our true home.