The life I live in the home I have

“Your home is so peaceful.  Anyone could come here and just feel peace,” said a friend who spent the night at my home recently, as she was curled on my couch with a blankie.  Such a sweet compliment, full of much deeper meaning to me than to her.  When the world is in chaos, when loss and grief have seemed to be constant companions, when hope is lighting up the darkness more and more, the peace of my home has been my retreat.

Through these past months of crisis, my home has been my safe place, my peace place, and my life’s place.  It is where God and I spend extensive hours together as He heals and allows my grieving soul to rest. It is where the Spirit’s comfort pours out and into me as I pour out my prayers and tears and fears.

My heart’s desire for this peace filled home is rooted in much ‘yuck’ from my past. (That’s for another post on another day.)  God has blessed me beyond measure with my home, this dwelling place where my children gather, where my grandson chases my ‘gog’, where my friends and family and faith community gather to love, support, and journey through life together.

This past Sunday the Lord brought me to Psalm 16. As is usual with our Loving Father, it was the perfect Word for me on this very emotional day.  It spoke to me in many ways; but it was verses 5 & 6 that soothed my heart and connected so deeply to my friend’s words:

“Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.” (NIV)

This NIV version connected immediately to my life verse from Job 36:16:

“He is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction, to the comfort of your table laden with choice food.”  (See http://www.goministry.net/so-i-was-thinking/2013/3/23/a-god-who-woos for more on that verse.) 

Boundary lines laid out in a pleasant place, in a spacious place that is free from restriction. A place that is the delightful inheritance my Father has provided with choice spiritual foods to comfort my soul.

Immediately my home, my safe place, my space with my Loving Father, came to mind. I then looked to the Message version of this scripture. Tears began to flow. Gratitude filled my soul. 

 “My choice is you, God, first and only. And now I find I’m your choice!You set me up with a house and yard.And then you made me your heir!”

My house and yard. My home. My peace-filled home. God has indeed laid out the boundary lines for my life. Within this restriction free inheritance, God is becoming more and more my First and Only. He is revealing more of Himself and I am desperate to be with Him. To bring Him glory. More of Him. Less of Me. 

And in that, I am learning to live with the truth that I am His choice! My imperfections. My brokenness. My yearning. All of me is His choice. What  is not enough for others is chosen and set apart by God.

 This learning and growing and healing is occuring in the home where the life I love is being lived.

 In the midst of the struggle and God’s intervention this week, some friends gave this absolutely perfect picture to me. Writing the words of the scripture on the back is just one way for me to remember God’s little but life-transforming gifts along this journey of life.

And the journey continues… new life, new routine, new Tress, new experiences… the journey of discovering it all continues… and my home and the beautifully messy life I live is grounded in the peace of my inheritance!