I learned the hard way that my decisions have consequences, long term consequences.

Before my son was born I wallpapered the nursery in a bold bright Jungle Graphic wallpaper.  What can I say?  I was pregnant.  It was the 70’s and we were a nation wallowing in Style Confusion.  Do I have to remind you of bell bottom pants and perms?  The mania spread across all design forms from Fashion to Interiors and trickled down to the worst incarnation imaginable:  vinyl wallpaper.  It was toxic in aroma and like it’s food twin, Twinkies, it could withstand global thermal nuclear war.  Indestructible.  I know, because I tried to remove it.  I finally had to move.

This image doesn’t come close to the horror that greeted me at 2:00 am feedings.  And when the morning sun filled the room it vibrated with an orange glow.  No wonder this little guy resisted sleeping.  You’ll have to use your imagination and add large orange elephants and make the background a vivid bright green to conjure up what I beheld as I nursed and rocked my little guy back to sleep.  He was a dream, but his room was a nightmare!

Some things we do aren’t easily undone.
I’ve been preparing for our trip to Africa and thinking about characters from the Bible, which may have triggered the Jungle wallpaper memory.  Eve seems like the perfect example of someone who probably really wished seconds later she could UNDO what she’d done.  There in the Garden she believed a lie told by an expert liar, “God is not good, and He’s holding out on you.”  Only God could UNDO all the damage of her bad choice.  He’s still working on that in the world one person at a time.  That’s the heart of the gospel, the good news:  God has made a way for us to be whole again.  Eve’s horrifically bad choice left us all damaged with holes in our souls that we try to fill with things that aren’t up to the task.  But God. . .

He restores my soul. . .
Psalm 23:3