The story of the chair

This Adirondack chair will always have a great story to tell. When we moved to our current home five years ago, the previous owners had left it behind. The boards were cracked, and if you sat in it, it would have collapsed. We just left it on the back deck, thinking that we'd tear it down eventually.

Five years later, Darrell decided to fix it up. He was already working on refinishing the deck, so one more project didn't seem too much. After replacing the cracked and broken boards with new cedar ones, sanding down the original wood, and replacing the existing hardware, he got online to find out about types of finishes he could use. After reading that linseed oil made a nice finish, he decided to try it. Who knew that you had to dry the rags on a flat surface for 24 hours to prevent possible spontaneous combustion? We sure didn't.

The next morning, we returned from church to find our house filled with fumes. The plastic trash can in the the laundry room, where the oily rags had been thrown away, had caught fire. (It had a lid, so there was no place for the fumes to go.) I'm a silver-lining girl, so I was grateful it was a cool, breezy day. We were able to open all the windows and air out the house. I'm so thankful that nothing else caught fire that Sunday morning.

I'm also thankful that Darrell took the time to restore the chair. It's a perfect place to sit in the evenings; it reclines back and you can look into the heavens and think.

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
—Psalm 8:3-4

Now, every time I see that chair, I'll think of how blessed I am. The old chair made new reminds me of a Savior who does the same thing for us daily. We all need reminders every once in a while, so I'm happy to have a chair with a story to tell.