Home

Consider with me, the feeling you get when you snuggle up to reread your most dog-eared book. Take a moment and trace the worn stitching of your most faithful movie-night blanket. Think about these two things: Saturday mornings and cinnamon rolls. Breath in deep with me, and then exhale the same sigh that comes with dropping your suitcase by the door after a long road trip. Close your eyes and listen close for the sound of your dog snoring by the fireplace or your dad whistling in the garage. Home really is made up of a million tiny things, isn’t it?

Having recently moved out on my own for the first time, I have been contemplating the concept of home with a new intensity. I now have the opportunity to create a home and in turn, determine what it creates. I’ve been reading books and scouring scripture and watching videos of how to make bread. I’ve probably (most definitely) made poor financial decisions after walking through the home decor aisles of Target and Hobby Lobby, attempting to make my space as cozy and welcoming as possible. I’ve hosted events with friends and have tried my hand at deciding what my signature dish will be at potlucks. I’ve both killed and revived a handful of houseplants, and there is a tab on my Safari right now that leads to the adoption application for a Dachshund puppy. (Someone please stop me on that one…) I have created a whirlwind of attempts to make my small town apartment feel like a charming home, and in all the chaos of that whirlwind, I have encountered a purpose that thrills and challenges me to my core.

I believe in divinely appointed purpose. I believe in personal callings. I carry one. I keep it tucked deeply in my heart and do my best to stay postured to hold fast to it. I pray my life and choices reflect it. With greater depth, however, I believe in biblical callings; the callings that are extended to us all by the avenue of scripture. Matthew 28:19 is a classic example of this type of calling. We are all called to share the Gospel with the world; inviting them to experience each portion of it for themselves; death by repentance, burial by water baptism in Jesus’ name, and resurrection by the infilling of the Holy Ghost as is detailed for us in Acts 2:38. We are all given the ministry of reconciliation as we find noted in 2 Corinthians 5:18. But, arguably, the most important calling one can answer is as follows:

Deuteronomy 6: 4-7 says:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

We are called to love God with everything in us, and to teach that to those whose lives are touched by the environment of our homes. But, friends, one is not taught love by words alone; not merely by stories or parables from a book, in spite of the truth that precious Book contains. One is taught love by experiencing it. So, with our homes, we are gifted a vessel through which His love may be poured; a fabric through which it may be felt. The challenge is set when we realize that we are tasked with the responsibility of shaping that vessel and weaving that fabric ourselves. The way in which we choose to steward the resource and influence of our homes has a dynamic impact on the disposition and direction of the next generation. No home is exempt from this truth. No generation has ever been the product of anything less.

Merriam-Webster defines the term home in multiple ways. The most encompassing of which, I believe, to simply be one’s place of origin. In order, then, to properly view our homes from a biblical lens, one cannot ignore what scripture has to say about what our true place of origin is. In the New Testament epistle of 1 Peter, the apostle is writing to the persecuted church and he addresses them with the following phrase: Dearly beloved, I beseech you as pilgrims and strangers… Peter was appealing to a concept that the church was certain to find both familiar and reassuring. I believe the hymn writer alluded to it well when he penned the words this world is not my home. And so, our true home is not found in the series of numbers displayed on our mailboxes or the collection of cozy throw blankets nestled in the basket beside the sofa, but rather in how much Heaven we can encounter and reflect here on earth.

I find rest in this, friends, and I pray you do too. That chaotic whirlwind of attempts to make my apartment a welcoming home is good and fun and right. I should keep doing my laundry. It’s important that I wash the dishes and sweep the floors. But, my greatest responsibility and joy is to get to represent the love that is poured out on me daily. This is a task that we all may endeavor to pursue, whether we are single young ladies in southern small-town apartments, teenagers still living under the same roof as our entire immediate family, or the parents of four in a house that took five years and eighteen floor plans to finally get built. We all have a role to play. We all have a sphere of influence. I pray we all find the heart to speak with sincerity the prayer in earth as it is in Heaven. May our homes reflect our Home, in this season and always.