I’m baaaack! It has been some time since I have done a blog entry, but I learned a valuable lesson over the past few weeks. Priorities are trumped by necessity. Over the past two weeks everything was either adjusted or cancelled due to an urgent concern. Even the most basic priorities like laundry and grocery shopping got side-lined because we had to deal with the situation. We had no choice but to change everything to deal with what needed our undivided attention.

My definitions: Priorities -things that  one “chooses” to do or “sees as important” in one’s life. Necessities – well just that, demands immediate attention without question. These may not be Webster’s definitions, but that is how I see them. So even laundry – in my eyes not the most pleasant – is a priority in my life because I choose to do it.  Yes, maybe I could defer this to other members of the family (we can’t quite afford to go and buy new when clothes get dirty – but that would be an interesting concept), but I choose to separate, pre-soak, and fold, knowing that I have done it to my specifications. Did I happen to mention I don’t like doing laundry? Still I put it high on the list of things that are important because I have decided to place it there. But during the past two weeks when the “priority list” had to be put aside,  the lesson I learned is that necessity over-rides even clean shirts and pants (underwear falls under the category of necessity, though adjustments of time were made as they were done late at night with the alarm set to pop in the dryer so they were ready for the next day).

During this whole ordeal it made me think on how God views us. I might be going out on a limb here, but I wonder: Does our Lord see us as a priority or a necessity? Correct me if I am wrong, but in my eyes there is a difference. If we are a necessity that requires immediate attention, then our redemption through Christ was done simply because Our Father has no choice – He had to deal with the situation immediately. But my hope is that we are a priority in His eyes. Like my laundry – not a pleasant job – but I trust God chose to send Jesus to die on the cross in our stead. I pray we are on the “top of the priority list” and that He willingly picked this task to be done by His Son. It makes my heart go all aflutter to believe that we are on God’s priority list and not just a necessity that demands immediate attention.

In our family situation there was fancy footwork to adjust schedules and even disappointments as things were cancelled, but I am content to announce that we worked through them.  But now I must close off this blog entry.  The dryer had just stopped with a load of laundry ready to be folded and put away. Oh, and it is not underwear, but jeans and dark T-shirts – a priority.

P.K.