Finishing

I am reminded to offer just that little bit extra.  Because perhaps – for God – that is the best bit!

Saint Joseph the Worker (Unknown)

My husband is a very very handy sort of guy.

He is the sort of guy who can look at a household problem and break it apart in his mind and then understand how to reconstruct a solution through the various different trades that need to be manufactured into the result.  He can understand the mechanics, the electrical, the plumbing, the gyprock, the carpentry and the engineering of a project.  Sometimes, as I have watched him work on one renovation project or another, I have asked him how he knew to act in one way or another, and he responds – invariably – that it is just “commonsense”.

Now, I know many other wives who complain that their husbands start various projects around the home to improve the house and then leave a mess everywhere they go.  I have never had this problem.  My husband – God bless him – always leaves a job in very good condition.  He will never leave a mess behind and always packs everything away so that things are clean and tidy.

I have often seen him applying the final touches to a project when he is exhausted, and then picking up a broom and dustpan to sweep up the mess that he has made.  All he really asks is that I hang around and make sure there is food and drink so that he can work without stopping to prepare a meal.  And this is a good trade for me.

I have been thinking about my husband’s ability to finish the job properly no matter how tired he might be or how tedious the job might be and it occurs to me today, that in some ways this is a sort of heroic act of sanctification.  You see, when a person exerts themselves to the end and ensures that they deliver a job completed and to the best of their ability they are displaying an effort as a sort of prayer.  Here we are invited – through the mundanity of the work – to offer something of our efforts to God.

In some ways it is like saying, I am tired, but I trust in You, God, to take care of me, so I shall continue to exert myself and do my best.  It is as though the soul is saying, I reserve nothing for myself.  I shall pour myself out into the work and through that I shall offer to God every small part of me – the beautiful and the flamboyant and the boring and transparent.

And when we work like this and make such offerings to God, He is pleased, because He loves to see His children do their best, just as I love to see my children do their best.

And today, as I consider the work of my husband and remember him sweeping up the dust at the end of a long hard day, I am reminded to offer just that little bit extra.  Because perhaps – for God – that is the best bit!

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.