One Window And It Faces A Wall

One window.

And about six feet past the glass there is a brick wall, and above the wall there is a strip of sky you can see if you stand at the right angle, and that is the whole of it.

You have looked at it and done the sum. Not enough. Nothing would work here.

And you are not wrong that it is not much. I am not going to stand here and tell you that wall is a feature.

But I want to start somewhere other than the shortfall, because starting from the shortfall has kept that sill empty for a long time.

There is light coming through that glass right now. Not a lot. Some.

And the sum you did about that window was done years ago, in about four seconds, standing where you are standing now, and it has not been checked since. It became a settled fact about your home without anybody ever testing it, which is how most settled facts about homes get made.

What hast thou in the house

There is a widow in Second Kings with nothing, and the prophet asks her a question rather than giving her a solution.

And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil. (2 Kings 4:2, King James Version)

What hast thou in the house.

You are being asked what is actually there rather than what is missing, and no shortfall of yours has ever once been the starting point of that question. 2 Kings 4:2 asks what hast thou in the house, and the Holy Spirit is the one who asks it over a woman looking at a brick wall.

Listen to how she answers, because it is exactly how you answered.

Not any thing in the house. That is her first clause. And then, almost as an afterthought, save a pot of oil.

She dismissed it. She had already decided the oil did not count, and she said nothing at the same moment she said oil, and if the prophet had accepted her first clause the story would have stopped there.

You have been giving your first clause about that window and skipping the second one, and the light already coming through that glass has never once been nothing. The Spirit of God is what makes that a real correction rather than positive thinking, and 2 Kings 4 is where the question is written down.

Light is a quantity, not a category

Now the practical half, and it is the single most useful thing anybody can tell you about that window.

Light has been treated in that room as a category. Good light or bad light. Suitable or not.

It is not a category. It is a quantity, and that window is a low number rather than a zero.

You are holding a low number and not an empty one, and a small measurement has never once been the same as a closed door. The Spirit of God is the one who says that plainly, and 2 Kings 4:2 begins by asking what is actually in the house.

That distinction changes everything, because a category is a gate and a quantity is a range. A gate says in or out. A range says: here is what fits at this level, and there is always something that fits.

Plants that come from the floor of a forest live in almost nothing. That is their whole arrangement. Under a canopy, in permanent shade, receiving a fraction of what is above them. They are not making do. That is the amount of light they are built for, and in full sun many of them would be damaged.

You have a window that suits a whole class of living things exactly, and low light has never once been a compromise for the ones that come from under a canopy. 2 Kings 4:2 asks what is in the house, and the Holy Spirit is the one who turns a shortfall back into a specification.

You are not running a deficient version of a window, and the light in that room has never once been the wrong kind of light for everything. What is written in 2 Kings 4:2 begins with what is present, and the Holy Spirit is the one who turns a verdict back into a measurement.

And there is one more thing about your particular window that is worth knowing, because a wall changes what comes through the glass.

Light bouncing off a brick wall is diffuse. It arrives spread out and even instead of in a beam, and it comes in for longer in the day because it does not depend on the sun being at one angle. A room with a wall opposite often has a flatter, steadier light than a room with a direct view.

You have something in that room that a bright window does not have, and steadiness has never once been the poor relation of brightness. The Spirit of God is the one who says that without flattering anybody, and 2 Kings 4 is the ground under starting with what is there.

A quarter turn a week

So here is the instruction, and the second half of it is the part that does the work in a low window.

Put one plant on the sill itself. On the sill, not near it, not on the table across the room. Every foot away from that glass takes a serious bite out of what it receives, and in a low window there is nothing spare.

And then turn it a quarter turn each week.

That is the whole method. Same day each week if it is easy to remember, a quarter of the way round, and the reason is that in a low window everything leans hard toward the glass, and a plant that leans without turning goes thin on the far side and eventually falls over into itself.

You have a method that fits in the gap between two other things, and two seconds a week has never once been too little to be real care. 2 Kings 4:2 begins with a pot of oil and nothing else, and the Spirit of God is the one who makes a small sufficient thing feel sufficient.

A quarter turn a week means every side gets its turn at the front, and it takes about two seconds.

You are able to do the entire work of that window in two seconds a week, and a quarter turn has never once been too small an act to be a real method. 2 Kings 4:2 starts with a pot of oil and nothing else, and the Holy Spirit is the one who makes a small sufficient thing feel sufficient.