If I had to give a dollar, quarter, (let's just say a dime) to someone each time I asked the question, "where are my keys?" I would be in dime-debt. It's true. For as long as I've had to carry a ring of keys around, I've always had this tendency (a nice way to say 'problem') of losing/misplacing them. Alright, why am I talking about this? I promise, for once, this is not a rabbit trail. But rather than jump right to the key point of my post (pun very much intended), I'd rather wait until the end to pull this all together. Join me as I tell you about the nemesis that I was forced to live with, my keys. I promise, there is a valid and really deep point to this.

Long before I was of driving age, I desired to have a ring of keys just like my parents. I collected keys that my parents no longer needed, put them on a ring, and then put a bunch of random keychain trinkets on it. You know...a rabbit's foot, a little silver dolphin, my name made from beads...basically I wanted to fill up my keychain so it made me feel important. What was it used for? Absolutely nothing.

Once I turned 15, I started to build my collection. Basically I took away a few of the useless keychains and put a house key and MY FIRST CAR KEY onto the ring. Having a ring of keys at this point was like my first taste of independence. It was a right of passage, a sign of maturity, I was a licensened driver. I was already burning CD's to hang on my visor. This was pre-ipod days, people.

OK, flash forward to 18. Driving wasn't so cool anymore but that's alright because now I'm off to college! I gain another key, the key to my first home-away-from-home. I also get a mailbox key. What's the count now? Four I think.

I graduate and get a job as a 1st grade teacher. What do they hand over to me? A key to my classroom. I add it to my collection. However, this key was hardly ever used because it hardly ever worked. Still, I was proud of it because it was like a little trophy. My first job.

Now that I had a "big person job", I needed to do something with all this money in the bank. So, naturally I was super excited (read sarcasm) about paying the bills/rent of my first house living on my own. What came with it? A key, of course. At this point I was able to do away with a mailbox key because now I had a real mailbox, keyless entry.

Several months and one holy matrimony later, my home becomes our home. Other than gaining the key to his heart (I intentionally did that because it was too corny to pass up), I also gained the extra key to his car. This complicated my life a bit because we both had Hondas and our keys were identical. Oh what fun times I had jamming the wrong key into the keyhole on numerous occasions in the pouring rain. I digress...

Alright, let's recap. I have a key to my parent's house, 2 car keys, a key to our duplex, a key to my classroom. Five keys plus my little keyless entry button thingy, one decorative keychain, and a little bottle of hand sanitizer (remember...I worked with 6 year olds all day). Can we say BULKY?? How I was able to lose my keys so much is beyond me. But I did.

Over the past several months, I've had to remove keys from my keyring. It started with my classroom key after I packed up my classroom. My parents moved so I removed their old house key. Once we finally left Auburn, I took that key off and left it for the ones who would move in after us. Finally, I handed over my car keys to my younger sister and returned the hubby's Honda key to him. And that was that. No more keys.

Wow.

Suddenly, I found myself mourning the loss of all my keys. For 8 years I carried those things with me everywhere. I still find myself pausing and looking around before I walk out the door because I'm so use to grabbing them before I head out. What was once a nemesis is now a nostalgic afterthought. The last thing I thought I would feel sad about is getting rid of my keys. Actually, I never thought that would make me sad. But when you think about it, your keys represent little pieces of you and what you own. When you get rid of a key it means that whatever it went to either doesn't work or doesn't belong to you anymore.

Normally, one key replaces another and it doesn't take any sort of emotional toll on you. But getting rid of all my keys in a timespan of 6 months...that was a little rough. It was a very visual representation of all the things I no longer owned. All in good timing, the Father reminded of the parable of the rich fool (wow, fool? ouch).

I find it not-so-coincedental that the verses to follow talk about not being anxious. Could there be some sort of relationship between stress and the amount of stuff I own? Hmmm.

I'm not trying to create or impose some sort of proverb that says "many keys means much sin". Don't get me wrong, I will soon have a collection of keys again. It's just nice to know that it is possible to survive without them and the thing that each key belonged to.



For more "Greener Grass Devotionals" click here. For an explanation of the name, click here!