A Writing Desk With a Story of its Own

A lot of visitors from far away places came to spend time with us this summer.

Family members of one type or another from New Orleans, Kansas City, Los Angeles, and Oakland made their way to our Ohio home to help us celebrate our nation's birthday in style. But none traveled as far as the piece of antique furniture that came to us from Woodburn, Oregon. Likewise a family member of sorts, the Bridge Writing Desk has taken up residence in the spare bedroom I use as my writing office, and I couldn't be more thrilled to see it there.

A beautiful fold-down desk with beveled glass bookcases on either end, it has been in the family for generations, purchased originally by Charles LeForest Bridge, and then passed down through the lineage of sons that followed, until it came to be owned by my in-laws, Donald and Phyllis Bridge. It has moved with them several times, traveling from Nebraska to South Dakota to distant Oregon. The centerpiece of their home in Woodburn, Oregon, I would spend hours each time we visited marveling at how beautifully it displayed the framed photos of family weddings and keepsakes from significant anniversaries on its many shelves. Family history has been written in the travels of this desk, and in each home in which it's been treasured it's held the family's heart close within the glass doors that offer glimpses into the joys of the passing years.

When Don and Phyllis moved into a retirement home recently, the desk was given to their only son, my husband, Jim. After being carefully crated and shipped back east to our home here in Ohio, it stood empty and open, inviting us to fill it's shelves with the lore and love of our own growing family. More than just a display case, however, it's the desk feature itself that now intrigues me. Each time I fold down the writing board, I likewise want to pull inspiration from the travel and history the piece holds into the literal writing I do in this room. So I've filled the shelves, as Phyllis did, with photos of our ongoing lives, but also with books I use for reference and those which hold published pieces of our own family's tale in their pages. I've filled the many cubbyholes with all the writing necessities that used to clutter up my computer desk, and the drawers below with blank stationery and note-cards, reminding me that there is still much life left to be lived and written about as our branch of the Bridges follows family tradition and continues to explore and expand.

FAMILY and FRIENDS

A little encouragement is a wonderful thing. 

The size of the situations we deal with is irrelevant; anything that happens to us is important in our own eyes, however minor it may seem to the rest of the world. Whether it's something as simple as a bad day on the job or as weighty as a frightening diagnosis from a doctor, the support of the people around us has a huge impact on the attitude with which we face the struggle.

My elbow surgery ranked among the minor maladies, yet the attention I received from the people around me was a huge blessing. Phone calls, text messages, flowers, visits, get-well gifts, cards in the mail, Facebook posts...it's no wonder I went around with a smile on my face while my arm was yet wrapped in a cast. I felt absolutely blessed that so many people cared.

Christians are not immune from trouble in this world; the Bible says in this life we will have tribulation. But Christ tells us that we can face it with fortitude because He dealt with the problem of our isolation on the Cross. More painful than the physical wounds He endured, perhaps, were the moments when God turned His head away because Jesus had covered Himself with the sin of the world. Jesus experienced the abandonment of God so that we would never have to. His death purchased the promise that God would never leave us or forsake us. We are not alone.

God has placed us in His family, surrounded us with a built-in support group of other believers whose job it is to love and care for us as together we make our way Home. He has filled His Word with examples of people who have gone before us, their stories detailed to encourage and inspire us. And He has given us the Holy Spirit to be our best friend, our Counselor, Healer, Comforter...the answer to our every need. We are not alone.

That's plenty to smile about, right there. :)

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us”

(Hebrews 12:1)