Bringing in the Sheets ~ Mundane Things Matter to God

A recent photo of my mom ~ taken by my brother, Chuck

I wrote this a while back, but decided to post it now in honor of my sweet mom.  She is seventy-eight years old today, and brings blessings to every life she touches.
Happy Birthday, Mom!

Bringing in the Sheets

 When I was young, we used to sing a hymn in our church that went something like this:

 “Bringing in the sheets, bringing in the sheets,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheets.”

At least, that is what I thought we were singing.  Never having heard the word sheaves, I just thought that for some reason it made God happy if we did not leave sheets hanging on the clothesline.  Not understanding why, I nevertheless joyfully sang along about the sheets.

I later learned that sheaves represent souls, and that this song is a reference to a passage in Psalms, where after sowing with tears the precious seed of God’s truth, we will one day present a harvest of souls reaped for Him. (Psalm 126:6)

Mundane Things Can Show the Love of God

Although I understand the song’s meaning now, I question whether as a child I was that off base.  I got to thinking about the rather mundane task of bringing in the sheets, and remembered how when growing up my mother would always hang our laundry outside.  Even though we had a dryer, she was more accustomed to saving on electricity, and just much preferred the freshness of things dried outside. 

The rigors of clothesline laundering were tiring, but I never heard my mother complain.  She routinely performed this mundane task, out of love for her family.  Memories of her loving hands caring for us caused me to consider that perhaps God is pleased when we bring in the sheets.

As Christians, we tend to think that to harvest souls, we must do the extraordinary.  We view soul winning as something reserved for missionaries, or as lengthy gospel presentations by visitation teams through our church.  However, what if there are equal opportunities in the mundane?  Little, seemingly insignificant things we can do to sow the love of Christ.  

Mundane Things Can Soften Hearts Toward God

Life provides many such opportunities.  Things like helping an elderly woman carry her groceries, showing kindness to the checker at the supermarket, or simply smiling in the bank line when everyone else is complaining.  With every little thing done and by throwing in a sincere nugget of I’m praying for you here or a God bless you there, it shines His love even more. 

There are many small measures, which if done for Him, could be the very ones that soften cold, sin-hardened hearts toward God.  They could be the precursors of readiness for when an opportunity presents for the gospel.

I doubt I will ever hear the old hymn, Bringing in the Sheaves, without getting a mental picture of my mom toting the laundry basket back from the clothesline.  Like a loving mother, caring for her family by drying their sheets outside to fill them with freshness of a summer breeze, we have many ordinary opportunities in life to demonstrate the love of God.

 If we have faithfully sown seeds of God’s love and truth, we will doubtless enter heaven rejoicing, bringing in sheaves.  He will honor our faithfulness in the harvest.  He will also be pleased with our record of well-doing in seeming mundane efforts for Him.  God will rejoice that we brought in the sheets!

Sue Nash/2013

Advertisement