Short Story: Deal with the Mess

“Just stuff it in the closet!” Johnny heard his mom call out. They were all frantically cleaning the house for company.

Johnny opened the closet door cautiously. It was stuffed to overflowing with other things they’d just “stuffed in the closet” before. He shook his head. What a mess!

He knew it wasn’t just the closet either. The basement, garage, and other closed-off places all needed hazmat suits to enter. They were running out of space to stuff; what would they do then?

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“What are you doing?” Johnny asked his mom. The hallway was filled with stuff—stuff he hadn’t seen in what felt like forever. Where had it all come from?

“We are cleaning out the closet…and the then the basement and garage,” his mother replied, wiping sweat off her forehead.

“Ummm, Mom, it looks worse now. We can’t even walk through the hallway.”

Mom sighed. “I know. Facing the mess is no fun, and it does look worse. But it’s the only way to get it all better. We need to deal with the junk, not just hide it. And then once we do,” she added with determination, “we’re going to keep dealing with it instead of trying to hide it.”

Mom’s organizing project seemed to take forever. The whole house, not just hideaways, felt overrun for a time. But then, order—true order—arrived. Johnny could find his toys again…and his roller blades. In the end, it had been worth it to not just hide everything away.

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7 (ESV)