"Shout for joy to God, all the earth; sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise! Say to God, 'How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you. All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name" (Psalm 66:1-4).
Early this morning I received a glimpse of what it means to make the name of another "glorious," and it happened in a most unusual way. Barely out of bed, I shuffled into the living room and viewed the messes which had been left in our living room when we left town this weekend. Books, shoes, laundry... all cluttering the room and shouting to me to buckle down and clean it up! Laundry... "We STILL have office laundry?!" I exclaimed to my husband. "This HAS to go to work with you!" He nodded, also recognizing that it had waited about a week for our teenage son who had busied himself with school and sports, and subsequently found himself ill. I reckoned that he wouldn't get to it. "I'll start folding it. We can at least send SOME of it today." My husband joined me, and together we delved into a mound of sheets and hospital gowns. As I watched him, I noted that he was considerably faster than me at folding the gowns. "So you don't tuck the sleeves in together?" I asked. "No," he responded. "In the long run, NO ONE is going to comment on whether the pile of folded laundry LOOKS good... only that it's done."
I still hadn't had coffee - my morning necessity for alertness - but I commented about the fact that we do things "differently." Not that there's a "right" or "wrong" for doing the job... And I mentioned how we loaded the dishwasher "differently." Probably best not to go too far with that one! I'm ridiculously fussy about how it's loaded, and in my mind there is either a "logical" or a "not-so-logical" way to do it! So I bit my tongue and said nothing else.
But then it occurred to me, "Doesn't it make sense to want an element of professionalism in EVERYTHING you do?" Not much more was discussed as we hurried through finishing the job and getting him out the door.
I later reflected on the laundry pile, and wondered WHY it mattered to me? Who really cared whether or not the gowns looked nice, whether folded or unfolded? Well, I'm my husband's wife, and I CARE! I wanted to make HIM look good because I love him and I know in my heart that he IS a notch above your average physician. He's pretty AWESOME! And then came my 'Aha!' moment. If, as my husband's bride, I felt so certain that I should do my best as a reflection on his glory, how much more, as the Bride of Christ, should I be focused on making HIS Name Glorious?
