The Christmas Trunk ... A true story :)

Dear Friends,


I wanted to share with you an amazing story that happened 2 weeks ago.  We put the event into written form so we could share it with friends and family!   This story is such a great reflection of the wonderful Jesus that we serve ~ I hope you enjoy it!


Merry Christmas! 
Christa 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THE CHRISTMAS TRUNK

A Story of Restoration and Blessing

The day started out with a little nervousness and anticipation.  Our family had been preparing for this moment for the last six weeks.  I t had been at that time that we agreed to combine forces to man a booth at the Douglas Co. Christmas Fair.  Would we sell anything?  Did we have a good spot?  Would we sell enough to make all the time and effort worth our while?  After all, Tom & I needed to finance our upcoming mission trip to India, and Christa wanted to augment her finances in order to pay bills.

We knew that the Lord had already blessed us by giving us a booth in Douglas Hall.  When we set up, several old-timers around us marveled that we first-timers had made it in.  As we met our neighbors, we found that the Lord had positioned us between Christians.  Here we were----three Christian booths in a row!  And to top that off, the women on our left had just started putting their booth together two weeks ago.  They believed that the Lord wanted them to sell silk-screened tee shirts with Christian logos on them in order to have a venue to share Jesus with those who walked by.  Wow!  Thank you, Lord!

Among the items we had for sale was an antique trunk that we had restored.  Even though we sold practically everything in our booth, on the last day, it was still there.

As I sat reflecting on that trunk, I remembered driving down Keasey St. this last summer.  I spotted this filthy dirty, burlap covered, stinky old trunk sitting beside the road at a garage sale.  They only wanted $25.00 for it; so I just couldn’t pass it up.  Surely I could do something with the trunk!

When we decided to participate in the Christmas Fair, I took on the project of cleaning and preparing the trunk for painting and fixing up.  Oh!  I didn’t know what I was getting into!  Armed with a face mask and gloves, I ripped off all the old, dirty burlap.  (The owner told me that her dad had used it during two tours of Vietnam; so who knew what germs lay in all the dirt?) I then took an exacto knife and cut the burlap away from the metal hardware and wooden slats.  Whose idea was this anyway?  Underneath the burlap was a thin fabric lining that covered the entire trunk inside and out.  This had to be stripped off too!  Was the smell getting any better?  No!

I decided to use bleach water to cleanse the trunk of any possible mold and hopefully take care of the smell.  (It didn’t!)  Now, I was down to bare wood that was spotted with dark imprints from the burlap and faded looking wooden slats and metal.

At this point, Christa took over and put several coats of soft grey paint on the trunk, distressed it, and waxed the exterior.  She also rubbed a reddish brown Restorafinish on the wood and metal.  The trunk was suddenly stunning!

Since the smell still existed inside the trunk, Tom put a cedar floor in the bottom.  What a difference that made!

We hauled the trunk out to the fair with high hopes of selling it at a very reasonable price.  It ended up sitting there for three days.  One of Christa’s friends said she would buy it, but she never came back to finalize the deal.

During the course of the three days at the fair, we had gotten to know our neighbor, Tammie.  She shared a grievous story of how she had been dishonored by the rest of her family when her father and mother died within months of each other.  She actually was the only one that had been in contact with her parents, but her two step-sisters swooped in after the mother died and claimed their inheritance, which was the home and all of its contents.  They even got a restraining order against Tammie so she couldn’t step foot on the property!  The step-sisters piled all  the “junk” they didn’t want outside the house.  The old family photos that Tammie loved were allowed to be rained on and left to ruin.  Some of Tammie’s neighbors did rescue some things for her and called her to come take what she wanted.

At the same time, Tammie’s biological brother and sister were encouraging her to join them in a law suit against the step-sisters.  When Tammie refused, they also turned against her.  Suddenly, she found  herself in a situation she had never been in before.  Tammie had always been the one that had gotten along with everyone, even when her siblings had been at odds with each other!

After the loss of both parents and the falling out with all of her siblings, Tammie was devastated.  It was at this point that the Lord began leading her on a journey of releasing bitterness and unforgiveness and replacing it with a heart of peace and forgiveness.  Having met Tammie, we would never have guessed that she carried this story of betrayal.  We could only see the woman who was full of the joy of the Lord!  She had a vibrancy and warmth about her that radiated out to all she met.  We also didn’t know that the Lord had positioned us to have a part in her continuing story of restoration and blessing.

Toward the end of the fair, I commented to Tammie that I was surprised that the trunk hadn’t sold.  Many people had stopped and commented on its beauty.  She gazed at the trunk for a long time and, with tears in her eyes, finally said that the trunk reminded her of the one that had belonged to her dad.  He had used it during two tours of Vietnam.  Her father’s trunk had been in the junk heap created by her step-sisters, and one of the neighbors had retrieved it.  She had kept the uniform and pins that had been in the trunk, but it was so dirty and beaten up, that she decided to sell it for $25.00 at a garage sale.  She had regretted selling it ever since, because it had been one of the few items that had been left that had belonged to her dad, and she had gotten rid of it.

I gulped and asked her if she wanted to hear the rest of the story; then I began to tell Tammie that I was the one that had bought her dad’s trunk and to tell of the process we had gone through to restore it.  As I shared the story, Tammie looked over at the trunk, and there it sat----cleaned, restored and lovely!  I couldn’t wait to share what had just unfolded with Tom & Christa.  When they returned to the booth I excitedly shared with them the conversation Tammie & I had just had.  It was at that moment that we all realized why the trunk had never sold!  We marveled at the faithfulness and kindness of God.  It could have only been through His divine orchestration that events turned out as they did: Both booths were put together in a matter of weeks.  Both of us were last minute add-ons in Douglas Hall, sitting side by side!  Last summer, I had bought the trunk not knowing we were going to do a Christmas Fair booth.  Now, I am looking at the young woman who had regretted selling her dad’s trunk.  We knew that this was not about profit or loss of revenue, this was about being an instrument of blessing for the purposes of the Lord. We ended up giving the trunk back to Tammie as we all cried and thanked the Lord for this glorious sign of restoration.

Think about the antique trunk.  It was caked with dirt.  It smelled like decayed fish.  It had been discarded as an unusable piece of junk.  It had set on the curb, stinky and dilapidated, past its prime and of no value.  Anyone could see that it would have taken a lot of hard work just to bring the trunk to a place of usefulness---let alone make it a thing of beauty!

Like the trunk, some of us have been told that we have no value, that we are dirty and steeped in sin or that we are past our prime, and we have been dismissed and dishonored by others.  Others view themselves as junk.  They have believed the lie that that they aren’t good enough or smart enough or pretty enough to have any value to anyone.  They put themselves on the junk heap.

Nevertheless, our Lord sees our value and worth, because He views us as He created and designed us to be.  He is in the business of restoring  His tattered pieces of art.  He views us as His special treasure; so when we choose to call Him, Lord, He begins His work:  He peels off the layers of dirt, tears off any labels attached to us, removes stains, sands off the rough patches, bleaches out any smell, cleanses us better than Murphy’s Wood Oil Soap, repaints us and forms us into His image and polishes us with His love, acceptance and forgiveness.  His creations are in a continual state of conforming more and more to His identity; so our old selves are being remolded into His likeness.  He never gives up on us, and He continually sees our value.  That’s our God!

The trunk now sits in Tammie’s home as an unending sign to her of what lengths the Lord will go to provide restoration and show His love to His children.

And the Pitcairn’s?  We have continued to marvel at the Lord’s goodness and grace, and we find ourselves reflecting on this story of restoration.  We feel so blessed that the Lord chose us to play a part in His plan to show one of his daughters how much He loves her.  We know that a lot of you reading this story can identify with the antique trunk.  You have been set aside by others or yourself, and the Lord desires to peel back some layers and begin to reveal the beauty and value that He has always seen in you.  Although we are at the end of this story, we know it is not done being told.  We felt the Lord prompted us to write this story down and share it with our friends and families during this holiday season.  We felt it was such a wonderful picture of the essence of Christmas---covenant, redemption and, of course, hope!  We want to encourage each of you to take a moment and reflect on your own life.  Are there areas that are just like that old trunk?  They’ve been put aside, not cared for and forgotten about?  Jesus wants to restore those hidden treasures within your life!  We would love to invite you to pray a prayer with us that opens the door to the journey of restoration in your life:

Pray with us:

Jesus, thank you for Your love for me.  I am grateful for the plans You have for me; plans for a hope and a future.  I ask You to come into my heart right now and peel back any layers that are between You and I. Sand away the rough patches and smooth out the disappointments and hurts.  Fill my heart with Your love.  Open up my eyes to see the value that You put on me.  Jesus, I want to start the journey of restoration with You.  Restore the things that have been stolen and lost.  I know that You are kind and gentle, and I choose to trust You in this journey.  Thank you, Jesus, for loving me so well .  I know it is Your love that heals, restores and transforms me; so right now, I receive Your love.      Amen

We love each of you and pray that Christmas, 2011, comes to be known as the season of restoration in your life!

Tom, Cheryl & Christa Pitcairn