
Building a home is one of the most natural instincts of any creature. Whether for protection from harsh elements and predators, hospitality purposes, or simply personal comfort, creating a space to live serves as our starting point in life. We start in a womb, and we move to a room.
Unfortunately, flaws and disfigurations warp our initial instincts over time. Our houses have grown into caskets, pyramids, and catacombs, and are referred to as our "forever homes." We cherish property too significantly to ever let it go without the opportunity for a better one.
What about nomadic tribes, free-spirits, and hitch-hiking hippies? They seem to thrive without a zip-code. Did Jesus belong to these? I don't believe he camped in either clan. Instead, he had a forever home above, while hovering over the waters below on his own designed hoverboard (much more significant than our modern ones). Even though He lacked a "place for His head," Jesus remained at constant rest because He had an invisible rock on which to perch. God was his comfortable shade covering, his beautiful lamp, and his soft rug.

Recently my husband and I gave up our first and only home together, and moved our tribe into someone else's home: a rental property to borrow for a time.... an unknown amount of time. This "unknown" levitated my own legs above the Earth, making me feel a bit off balance. We had chosen this challenge. We had desired this change, but when all was said and done, I couldn't find my footing. We were just sort of hovering over this new property, and with no future plans, I felt shaky over the moving water.
I noticed that when I'd walked by the pictures on our walls every day, I had erased the images from my focal point because they had become part of the wall, so to speak, but after visiting other potential properties, my vision altered again. When you move or even visit a new space, it is easy to see a need to improve or change it to fit your preferred lense.
Shelf here, lamp there, rug over here. Creating efficiency or artful-mastery is part of mankind's DNA. Having a place for everything in our new home started out like a jigsaw puzzle, but soon turned into a spastic "Supermarket Sweep" episode. I was purchasing things with the swipe of my finger to perfect every corner of the rental.
As any number of home-reno shows will demonstrate, what starts out as simply making a space comfortable or captivating, can very quickly transform into creating personal perfection. Eventually, my "homebody" nature reshaped, and my perspective recalibrated on the idea of "building a home."
When I stepped back and took a breath, I remembered we'd be moving again in the near future. That's when I found the "return label" instructions, and began placing my feet back on the my firm foundation. Knowing that God has a perfectly designed room for me in my forever home (John 14) gives me freedom to open my hands in my earthly home.
I can live with more peace when I live more like Christ in this temporary residence called Earth. It may be hard to follow Him, choosing to hold our property and people with an open hand, but there's so much less fear and worry because we can feel at home anywhere.
Jesus perfectly demonstrates hospitality in heaven because that's the only perfect place to live.
So we went on the road again...
~carefully careless
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