A friend lost her home last week. When I spoke with her on the phone, the weariness in her voice was penetrating. Though her health is fragile, yet I have experienced her trust in God to be like a deep lake. Her home has been a place I return to for refreshing wisdom and encouragement.
But last week she was trying hard in our conversation to find her footing through shock and indignity. She is staying temporarily with family. Her church is moving mountains to find a place for her to live. Meanwhile she was hanging onto words from John’s gospel that her pastor had read to her: that our Lord prepares a dwelling place for us and we do not have to be afraid.
God’s home is wherever we are. My friend knows that. However, it’s one thing to know it; it is another thing to live it in a strange bed. Jesus answered, “… my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” (John 14:23) I can vouch for the fact that God’s home is in my friend’s heart; I step into a sense of God’s presence every time I talk with her. But tonight she needs to know deep down that her home is in God. It is probably only the Holy Spirit that can assure her of that through this long night.
Meanwhile, here in the States the question of the week is: Are you going home for Thanksgiving? Many will travel back “home” to parents or grandparents, maybe even back to the house where they grew up. My daughter and her husband, for example, are coming “home” to our place.
And yet, if the temporary house is taken away, would we be able to trust our home is always in God, or would those words sound like sawdust? Or if we have no one to go home to this week, will loneliness be louder than the words that God is always making a home in us? I can’t answer, because this year I have a house in which to live and children coming to share some meals here.
But pray for my friend, and for all those who in these financially hard times have lost their homes this year, and even for all those who have lost people with whom they once shared a home. May God be a lavish homemaker in their lives. And may the rest of us not get so buried in our houses and preparations that we forget to extend “home” in God’s name to others.
Joseph says
A post that really hits home. A post that makes us all really really think about these hard times as well as the time of year.
As I read the post…….it brings back feelings of 5 to 8 years back, it was a very difficult time.
Some of the words used in your post:
-Shock
-Indignity
-Hanging onto
-Loneliness
-Lost
-Trust
A few others I remember:
-Hurt
-Denial
-anger……….. are all very true to their meanings when going through an all but unbearble time.
During that time, what helped me the most was running to The Heavenly Father, My Faith, He put people in my life. Some I knew, some I bearly knew & some complete strangers…. there for me, to listen, to sooth the hurt, to help & to guide me.
This very sad happening in your friend’s life is something that could happen to anyone at anytime.
I will pray for your friend as well as the rest of those out there who have had their lives yanked right out from under them.
It is only within the past 1 to 2 years i could discuss this in public. It has made me a more humble person, much wiser, more compassionate, more understanding, a person much closer to God.