Her house was cluttered. Clean, but busy. Glass ornaments, knick-knacks and momentos littered desktops, shelves, tables and other level surfaces. Photographs of children, grandchildren and friends gave way to paintings and prints of fields and flowers on walls of green, gray blue and white. Much of the window space in the house had been converted to intricate stained glass that threw shapes of red, orange and yellow on anything and everything. One’s eyes always had something to peruse in this home.

I never really wandered much while I was there. I’d stick to the room my hostess brought me to, typically the living room or kitchen where we’d talk about work, church and the life between them. There was one hallway that always jumped out at me, but we never traversed. It was a curious place because not only was it dark, but one of the walls was completely blank. This woman taped the Greek alphabet and several psalms to her cupboard doors. She sported the most intricately designed jewelry and clothing and yet, she had a giant blank place in her house.

Was there something keeping her from covering it? Years of weekly visits passed without me saying a word. I watched wall colors change, paintings and photographs get replaced and until this year, that wall experience neglect. I experienced a strong aversion to making any commentary on her decorating skills and therefore avoided asking questions about this space. Maybe the light wasn’t right. The hallway was dark, after all. But the other side was just as done-up as the rest of the house, so that theory didn’t seem to work. I never came up with any other theories because I only thought about it when I was visiting my friend.

Eventually though, items began to make their way to the space. First was a few paintings, then a couple of photographs then out of nowhere, a giant clock. It took several visits to discover these items and after several more, the wall was just as covered as the rest. One day, I asked about the clock and my friend replied, “Oh, I’ve been trying to find something to fit that space like I wanted. That worked and got me started on filling the rest of it up. Now I’m just about out of space!”

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The fields keep disappearing around here. I discover fast food restaurants and strip malls in place of yellow, grassy weeds and pink wild flowers. I’m mostly alright with this as I like the idea of living in an urban center. I love having lots to do and people to see and I’ve never liked a slow day. Even as a child, I preferred getting around on weekends and holidays over staying home with my parents, video games and toys the whole day.

I have a tendency to fill my schedule out. If I have a spare hour or two, I’ll schedule something to fit in it. I recently discovered that I enjoy trips to the gym, but have little time in the evening to get there, so I’ve been going at gross-thirty in the morning. Because I get so busy, I don’t watch a lot of television. Partially because I feel guilty wasting that time but also because it’s stupid. I keep hearing about this show called Hoarders. The idea of it just makes me crazy….

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It’s innate in us to want to fill empty spaces. In the beginning, the Earth was formless and void. God got busy and put our beautiful ball of dirt in that space. He then placed birds, dogs, caterpillars and freaking spiders in there. He put people in there, too- they were kind of dumb, even before sin and in spite of the fact that God made them in His image. Today, we’re just the same. Made in God’s image and apparently, we hate the wide open spaces because whether they’re literal or figurative, we’ll fill them. Sometimes with more city, other times with photographs of dead relatives in gaudy, gold frames. Some of us don’t overdecorate, we just get busy with life. The variations of space-filling go on and on and what’s the point? I don’t know, we just have to watch what we’re filling our lives and our spaces with. If they’re going to be cluttered and busy, we need to make sure it’s  with good stuff.