Old Stuff in a New Room

“Good morning, Jessie,” said Mom.

“Why are you so happy this morning?” asked Jessie.

“Because,” Mom replied, “I’ve finally got someone to help me with a job I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”

Mom stared at Jessie, grinning. Jessie looked up from her oatmeal and almost dropped her spoon. “Huh? Me?” Jessie asked. “Umm, I was going to play with Emily.”

“Oh, you can play later; I need your help.”

Jessie had a sinking feeling in her stomach. Would this be a job like taking out the garbage or scrubbing toilets? Ick. Jessie was almost afraid to ask. “What’s the big job we’re doing?”

“Cleaning out the attic!” Mom announced. “It’s so messy up there. But I figured you and Emily could use it for a new playroom when we get it cleaned out.”

“A new playroom?” Jessie perked up. “I like that idea,” she said, gobbling down her oatmeal. She slurped up the last bit of her juice. “Okay, I’m ready!”

They gathered some cleaning supplies, climbed the stairs to the attic, and opened the door. Creeeek. “I hope there aren’t any yucky spiders up here.” Jessie shuddered and peered into the dark, dingy room.

“There may be a few,” said Mom.

Jessie tiptoed through the door. Then suddenly, she felt something touch her hand. “Aahh!” Jessie jumped up and down. “A spider! I’m gettin’ outta here!”

Mom laughed and grabbed Jessie’s sleeve, pulling her back into the room. “It was only this old dress hanging here by the door. See?” Mom turned on the light and opened the little round window for some fresh air.

Jessie tried to calm herself as she looked around the room. “What’ll we do with all this stuff?”

“Well, most of it belonged to Great- Grandma,” Mom replied. “We might be able to sell some things, but they’re so old—people have newer, better things nowadays.”

Jessie sat down in an old rocking chair and started to rock back and forth—eeeek, eeeek, clunk, clunk. “Hey, this isn’t bad; it wobbles funny, but I can rock my baby dolls to sleep. May I keep it?”

“Sure,” Mom replied. “But you probably don’t need this.” She picked up a funnylooking box with buttons and knobs on it.

“What’s that?” asked Jessie.

“It’s an old radio.”

“You mean like the radio in our car?” asked Jessie.

“Yes, but this one used to be in Great- Grandma’s living room. She didn’t have a TV like we do. She listened to shows and music on this. But now we have CDs or just listen to music on our phones.”

Jessie ran over to a table where a strange object sat. “Wow! What’s this thing?” Part of it stood upright with a round dial that had holes. Each hole had a number in it. The other piece lay on top.

“That is a telephone,” said Mom. “You pick up this part and dial the number using the holes.” Mom showed Jessie how to put her finger in the hole of the number she wanted and move the dial. “Then you listen and talk in here.” Jessie lifted the ear piece to her ear and pretended to talk to Emily.

“Oh, hello, Emily. This is Jessie.” She giggled. “Can I keep it, Mom?”

Mom chuckled. “I suppose, but we do need to get rid of some stuff. You can’t keep it all.”

“I’ll dust it off so Emily and I can use it.”

“Well, you can’t really call anyone on it because it’s not hooked up anymore.”

Jessie frowned. “What do you mean?”

“This phone was made a long time ago. It had to be connected to a phone wire. It’s not like a cell phone that you just carry around in your pocket.”

“How come things are so different now? Why don’t we still use the same stuff?” Jessie wanted to know.

Mom gazed at the old telephone and radio. “I suppose because God gives people creativity to make new things and come up with ideas to do things in a better way.”

“Like cell phones. We can carry those with us whenever we go somewhere. We sure couldn’t carry one of these phones around with us.” Jessie tried to pick up the heavy old phone.

Right!” Mom laughed. “There are some new things that are just better than the old things. Look at this washboard.” Mom showed Jessie a metal board with bumps all over it. “Great-Grandma used this to scrub dirty clothes. It would be really hard to get everything perfectly clean that way.”

“She had to scrub everything on that?” Jessie was shocked. “That’s super-hard work. We just have to throw our clothes into the washing machine and let it do the work.”

“Yep. This reminds me of the Bible lesson you told me about. Even God makes new and better things,” said Mom.

“Oh, yeah. In the old covenant, the people worked really hard to try and keep all the laws,” said Jessie.

“Right. But Jesus brought the new covenant, which is so much better,” said Mom.

Jessie looked around the room. “All these old things were new when Great-Grandma had them. But things change all the time, don’t they?”

“Yes, they do. And today, we’re going change this whole room!” said Mom.

“Yay! Before we know it, I’ll have a brand-new playroom—with an old phone and rocking chair—and no spiders!”

Mom and Jessie laughed as they got back to work.

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