The Little Chair

Everywhere you look they are on sale.
By the price reductions alone, you know that the season is almost over.
Soon, we will be saying goodbye to summer and hello to fall.
In the meantime, clearance sales are everywhere.

Barbecue things, picnic items, patio furniture, and lawn chairs all reduced for a quick sale.
The item that people paid full price for, just a few months ago, is now almost half price.
There it was, the last in a line.
Only one of two that were left looked as I remembered.

The memories that came flooding back to me as I passed by caught me by surprise.

Our youngest daughter had her first birthday in the house we now live in.
We actually moved into our house on my birthday in July.
That fall, in November, we celebrated her first birthday.
After we moved in, there were a few things for our deck that we needed to buy.

Almost as an afterthought, I bought my daughter a white, resin Adirondack chair.
It was meant to be used outside.
It was meant to be her special seat on the deck.
It never saw the light of day.

She loved that little chair when she was a toddler.
She was able to sit it in all by herself.
She was able to move the chair to all her favorite places.
Its permanent location was in our family room.

There was an old country bench in front of the sofa, which acted as a coffee table.
She put her chair right next to the bench.
We watched very little television when the children were little.
However, one little show was her favorite.

It was based on the Little Bear books by Maurice Sendak.
The half-hour show had short episodes with quiet dialogue.
It had sweet stories with a cast of characters who, except for one little girl, were animals.
She would pull her chair next to the bench that was a table, have her snack and watch.

That picture is firmly etched in my mind.
My little daughter sitting in her pajamas with her cheerios and her milk.
Sitting there, wrapped up in the story of Little Bear and his friends.
Sitting in her white resin, Adirondack chair that was meant to be outside.

I saw the same little chair outside the store.
Only two were left and only one was white.
I was immediately transported to another time in my memory.
A time that has been captured in family photographs; a time gone by.

I saw a mother holding her child’s hand as they passed the chairs.
The child pointed to the other chair and said, Blue, so proud that the color was known.
You are so smart, the mother said, yes, that chair is blue.
Blue was nice but white was my preference, a preference from long ago.

My daughter outgrew her chair, as she outgrew most other things as well.
Time has a way of doing that to us.
Time passes and we grow up.
We grow up and we leave things behind.

After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow Me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed Him. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to His disciples, “Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:27-32)

Levi, who was known as Matthew, was a tax collector.
As a tax collector, his people would have considered Matthew a traitor.
His tax office would have been in Capernaum.
His tax booth would have been on the Via Maris, one of the oldest trade routes.

Matthew’s tax table was very important to his livelihood.
Matthew probably had a favorite chair that he sat in while at his tax booth.
Upon meeting Jesus, none of that was important to him any longer.
Matthew left everything to follow Jesus.

What we hold dear, what we consider important, will pale in comparison to Jesus.
Once we meet Jesus, our life is never the same.
Favorite occupations, favorite pastimes, even something simple as a favorite chair.
They are never the same; we are never the same.

We are better.
We come to a fuller knowledge of the One who saved us.
Our idea of what is important changes dramatically.
As it should.

Tax collectors worked on a commission basis.
They could set their own rates as high as they wanted.
As a tax collector, Matthew had an orderly mind and was an expert at record keeping.
Once he met Jesus, that skill was used to compile the gospel of Matthew.

We leave behind something we once thought was so important.
We receive something far better.
We have Jesus.
When we trust in Him alone, and not our own works for our salvation, we have eternal life.

Leaving everything behind to follow Jesus is the only option.
Once we meet Jesus, our life is not the same.
We are not the same person we were before we met Him.
We are better, everything is far better.