Reflections on Hamsters and the Worry Wheel

Knabbeltje  (the official Dutch name for Little Nibbles) will soon be heading home.  Her little hamster wheel creaks at night as she pours her nocturnal energy into it, going nowhere. It reminds me of worry. 

I hesitate to admit that I spent time on the hamster wheel of worry last week.   Our “Garden of Eden” house sitting gig had some serious drawbacks.   It's 1/2 hour away by car, but alas, we don’t have a car. So Matt’s commute to school would have been about 3 hours a day by public transport.  Or he could have pretended to be training for the Tour de France and tried to cut it down to two hours by bike.  We considered all the possibilities and thought perhaps he would stay in the dorms certain nights of the week… but then, that is just less time together… sigh.  

Then I found out, as is so often the case when you are new in a culture and don’t know the language, I had totally misinterpreted the waterbed exchange.  In fact, that room would be off limits, the splash park was closed.  No biggie, I get it, but how do I explain that to Nora?  What next…my brain spun round and round,   “am I really safe in the Father’s arms?”

“For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him… For after these things, the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matt. 6:8b & 32-33

OK, OK… I get it… I’ve been singing that song since I can remember.  It is a Kauffman family favorite passed down from Matt’s Maternal  Grandparents.  So how do I do that?

Well, God was working it out.  I am blown away.  We started looking again for housing.  We considered quite a few options.  But again, some Christian people, who believe it or not- needed a cat sitter for a month, decided that they could rent out their attic apartment.  When I heard the size of the place (tiny), I had to have a serious wrestling match with my needs and my wants.   I got my wants pinned to the floor and declared victory, but then we went to see it!   

God is providing for our needs, and much more.   It is a lovely, little space, in the heart of an ethnically diverse area very near campus, and the cat is so cute and friendly!! My girls and their cats were inseparable, now we have a great substitute!  We’ll move their August 31^st.    So this plan of staying light on our feet here will buy us some freedom to travel, which was one of our hopes in coming here.  So we might take off on an adventure to Germany between Matt’s summer and fall classes.  More on that later!

So for now, we are out of the dorms and gratefully house sitting in a lovely home for the next few weeks,  Knabbeltje is heading home soon, and we get to know our next pet, Tsjompie (sounds like Chompie!),  in a few weeks. God is good!