Open Hand

I had my first real open hand experience last night I think. You know, open hand, almost a test of faith to see if you're holding more tightly to the things of this world or if Christ is really the center.

There was a fire in my apartment building. Someone on the 3rd floor (I live on the 1st) had a stove fire that set off all the alarms and the sprinklers in her apartment. It turns out this 3rd floor apt is directly above mine. The firefighters were here checking my apartment for leaking water. I walked through and only found one sprinkler leaking, in the kitchen. Then I did a second walk through and as I walked through my bedroom I heard water running down in my closet. If you know me, you know there are two things I love: shoes and watches. Both are kept in the closet. I opened my closet door and tried to turn the light on to no avail as the power to my room was turned off. All I could see was that the carpet in the closet was a darker color than the bedroom carpet. Meaning...it was all wet.

The firefighters came in, cleared out the wet stuff and set buckets and containers underneath all the leaking points. A little while later the water had been shut off and maintenance took over. They cleared everything out of my closet and I began going through the wet stuff. After that the carpet cleaning company came in, sucked up all the excess water, sprayed to prevent mold and mildew and brought in huge blowers to blow under the carpet to dry the padding. I had to turn the heat way up last night and sleep with the blowers on so needless to say I didn't sleep well.

I've got a lot of cleaning and laundry yet to do but at the end of the day, nothing was ruined (I don't think). All my shoes are wet but drying, my watches still tick, and the majority of my clothes are just wet and washable.

When I heard the water rushing down in my closet I had a little time to think as I waited for the firefighters to get down here. I thought all of my stuff would be ruined but I didn't freak out, I didn't cry because it's just stuff. I hope that my peace was in direct relation to knowing that this world is not my home and not due to the fact that I have renters' insurance. In reality, it's just stuff and there is so much more important.