The great trash dig

A few weeks ago I noticed that one of the earrings in a new pair of gold swirly earrings that I'd bought was missing. I was really upset because I hadn't bought jewelry in such a long time, and now one of my new earrings was missing. I have this bad habit of removing earrings and laying them on the nightstand, and it must have fallen off the stand onto the carpet. Jon assured me that I'd probably vacuumed it up, so we would sort through the icky vacuum compartment to find it.

Yesterday I was on a cleaning frenzy to remove any allergens that might have caused Jon to have a really bad allergic reaction (turns out it was pink-eye and my efforts to not catch it were futile). I started with the carpet and thought, "Hey, I'll look through the icky vacuum thing and see if I can find that earring." Sure enough, it was sparkling and I could see it through the plastic container. I was so close! I dug and dug and junk was flying everywhere. I was determined to get that earring! When I started getting grossed out I put on the dish gloves, dumped it, and kept looking.

Then it was gone. I looked and looked and couldn't find it.

I didn't find that earring, but I do have a renewed understanding for the mess that God helps me sort through in my life. When things really started getting nasty, I chanted a mantra to myself: "It's just our crap. It's just our crap." Because at least I knew whose dust it was. But the gunk that wasn't even God's, He willingly took on so that I could be free.

At least He found the proverbial earring, though... I'm still earring-less. Darn.