A FOREVER HOME
My husband and I have recently moved into a new house. We have moved often in our married life. Sometimes I wonder what it must be like to live in one place for decades - the proverbial “forever home”. I imagine this to be familiar and comforting - like a pair of old slippers and a well-worn bathrobe.
This has not been my journey. Instead, I have moved multiple times, sometimes to new homes in the same town and sometimes to an entirely new city. With this comes the adventure. The discovering of new places and new routines. The joy of new friendships. The establishment of different nooks and crannies.
Our new home is a blank canvas onto which we get to create art – because turning our house into a home is not a science, it is most certainly an art. Making life unfold in a space is beautiful and colorful and moody and eclectic.
The way the light falls in our new kitchen inspires me and I can already smell the future meals and the morning coffee. Leaning against the freshly painted wall of the dining room, all nicely tucked away in this house, I imagine the joy of hospitality with new friends, old friends, and family. I can hear the voices and I see myself settle in for long and deep conversations. There, in the corner of our lounge, I see my favorite chair, a place for prayer and quiet contemplation.
Out of boxes come familiar objects, lovingly collected, and carefully curated. They tell of our journey. They speak of our history. Our now adult children are familiar with them and our grandchildren, filled with curiosity, are getting to know them. Every wedding anniversary, instead of buying each other gifts, we have bought something for the home, because the home is what enfolds our marriage and keeps us. The gifts brought to the home for over forty years, surround us with our journey, our memories and our life.
For all of us, whether we have lived in multiple homes in our life or have lived in one for many years, this one thing is true - our homes are never perfectly lived in. Mistakes get made, both small ones and terrible ones. The goal is to lean heavily on our faith to guide us through, to grow us, form us and forgive us. Every day, in every home, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done” needs be our fervent prayer.
When all the boxes are unpacked and all is in place, it is, when all is said and done, the house of the Lord that actually is our forever home.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.[1]
May we think on these things.
[1] Psalm 23:6