Look, Don't Touch

One afternoon Vickie invited me and two other ladies over for tea. I felt like royalty as we set down to the fruit salad and finger sandwiches she had lovingly prepared. The table was set with fine imported Irish china, creamy white with delicately painted clusters of green clover.

“This tea set belonged to my mother-in-law. I know she would have wanted it used.”

Vickie told us about an incident that happened shortly after she and Todd where first married. They were asked to house set for a couple of weeks while Todd’s parents went to Ireland to visit family. Todd’s parents assured them Vickie’s cat was welcome to stay as well.

Vickie carefully moved several of the antiques her in-laws loved to collect out of the cat's reach. That is all except the items displayed on a high shelf framing the kitchen a foot or so below the ceiling. “The cat could never get up there,” she thought.

But, one night Vickie woke to the dreadful sound of breaking glass. The item she found laying in pieces on the kitchen floor had been in the family for generations. Vickie was beside herself. What was she going to tell her mother-in-law?

A week or so later when Vickie tried to tell her the dear woman stopped her. “Before you say another word there is something I want you to know. Nothing in this house is more important to me then you. Everything I have is meant to be used and can always be replaced. Now what is it you need to say?”

Vickie told us that WAS her mother-in-law. She had the money for niece things and was never afraid to use them. China went into the dishwasher along with everyday dishes. It wasn’t that she didn’t value them. She just firmly believed they should be enjoyed.

Three of the ladies at our afternoon tea had matching salad bowls. One had a cereal bowl of the same pattern but noticeably shaped different. When Vickie unpacked the set from her mother-in-law’s things one of the salad bowls was missing. No doubt broken through use.

God doesn’t put “Look, don’t touch” signs on display either. The possessions He loans us are meant to share and enjoy.