Simple Two White Chairs

I may not leave my front porch.  It's an average porch/deck/step, so little and simple that I had never thought of adding chairs to it let alone know whether I should call it a porch or not. Actually, I have never put anything on our front porch, not even seasonal decorations.  It's been empty and way underutilized for all three and a half years that we have lived here.But last week, I saw these white chairs outside of our local hardware store, and I kept thinking about them.  I kept picturing them on our front porch.  Then I started day dreaming about how peaceful it would be to sit out on my front porch; watching the few cars go by, waving hello to my neighbors on their afternoon walks, listening to our old trees sway in the warm breeze, and kissing the summer evenings good bye as our family sat out there after a long day outside.You see, it's not the porch that makes it a good place to sit.  The porch is average as I said.  But the street, oh the street that we live on is spectacular!  It is my dream street!  It is the street that I have dreamed of living on since I was in the seventh grade as I would roller blade around town.  I went up and down this street, honestly, for all the cute boys that lived on it at the time, but I kept coming back for the street's beauty.  It is lined with big beautiful old trees, each house unique and most built in the late 60's and early 70's; there is nothing cookie cutter about them.  It is quiet, so quiet, tucked away with only the faint sound of kids laughing at the public pool in the summer months.Oh, those simple two white chairs.  I bought those two white chairs this morning, loaded them up in my van, fingers crossed that they would fit.  I carried them to my average front porch, sat them down, cleaned them off, and the moment I sat in them my average front porch turned into a spectacular front porch!These simple two white chairs created a space for me to sit in the stillness that is my street.  They added a stillness to my day, a quieting of my heart, and a joy to my spirit.  It was just the beautiful gift from God that I needed that I have so longed to see after a two week stretch of deep sadness.  A sadness filled with grief that I could not shake.  God used these two simple chairs to wake me up, to show me once again the tension between beauty and sorrow, both always being held at the same time.  I'm learning that sometimes it's ok to lean in closer to the sorrow and press into it, and other times He asks me to let go of the tight grasp that I have on my sorrow so that I can feel the sweet relief of holding onto the beauty for awhile.These simple two white chairs helped me pry my fingers from the sorrow for the moment, and hold loosely onto the beauty. And now, if you need me, I'll be sitting on my spectacular front porch!