BRING DOWN THE RUG

By Christine Jayakaran

April 6^th, 2024

Have you ever had something so carefully stored up that it actually ages and fades into oblivion in safety?

I have a couple of rugs at home that I bought, over the last decade, to use for video shoots and then for our home. I probably used each of them for a week or two after they arrived until life caught up to them. What I mean is that with kids and a dog the rug was thoroughly used and almost over-utilised! The carpets began collecting dog hair, chocolate milk stains and biscuit crumbs galore (thanks kids!!). I even found crayon markings on some of them, a crime which my kids denied ever being involved in. (I guess our dog is moonlighting as an artist!)

Anyway, after many such incidents where the rugs where totally abused, I decided to dry clean the lot of them and keep them sealed in an air tight bag and store them in the loft. And that’s what I have done for the past 3 years give or take. Until this week when I was cleaning the lofts and saw these sweet rugs all clean and folded, seated in sanitised bliss far from the damage inflicted by man and beast. As I admired them from outside the transparent bag I realised just how irrational this was.

A rug was made for the floor. It was created to be walked on and to be sat on by every kind of living being that walked into our home.

Here I was so desperate to keep this piece of decor untouched that I had left it unused.

By virtue of my desire to protect these large pieces of fabric I was actually causing them to languish and eventually fade out of existence, far outside of their purpose.

I ask you again? Have you done this or am I the only one who not only does this with my rugs but with my dreams and gifts as well?

Some of those dreams that were put into the very fabric of our being are now just distant memories that we put away and categorised under fanciful and unrealistic.

Some of those gifts and talents we had in our youth are now neatly tucked into the lofts of our past where we barely give them a thought or tug to reopen and use them for all they are worth.

What ‘rugs’ have you so delicately preserved and kept just out of sight that you can carry on with your life with the least amount of extra labour? Maybe it’s time to bring down the rug. Maybe it’s time to create time to accommodate it in your life so that you live with greater abandon in the fact that every part of your life, even the messy parts, are completely cared for and being overseen by a very loving and intentional God!

I now have a rug in each of our rooms fully mindful that they will collect dust, hair and footprints but completely sure that they will serve their purpose of adding beauty and comfort to all who enter that room!