Tiny Spaces

We are thankful for the house in Kawasaki our mission has purchased for us to live in. But there is one tiny problem: it's TINY. As with all Japanese urban living, it offers VERY compact living space. Some might say a little too snug for comfort. But as the picture on our wall says, "With love, even the smallest house can become a mansion."

But sometimes because of the tiny space, one wonders what to do with all one's stuff. The tiny closets certainly don't fit very much. One solution: make a hole in the ceiling and create some tiny attic space. So, hammer and saw in hand, last week Kevin did just that in our home. We created enough new tiny space above our 3rd floor (yes, we have 3 floors, but don't get me started in telling you how tiny each level is) to accommodate about a dozen boxes including Christmas trees and things irregular size for Japan. What a relief to our closets to reclaim this space! (PHOTO: It's just big enough for Justen to squat down in and move around. How will we get stuff down as he grows up?)

Of course, another solution might be throw out and get rid of unneeded things. Our neighbor has been aggressively discarding things to move to smaller housing (PHOTO: the bags of trash she recently placed out on the street). Watching our neighbor getting rid of all these things (everything including, yes, a kitchen sink!), has sobered us to the life cycle of possessions. We really accumulate a lot more than is practical, needful, or healthy for a Kingdom-focused lifestyle. The admonition of Christ rings true:

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:19-21