Celebrating the House

Today marks one year since we moved into our first house. I mentioned it to Joa and said we needed to celebrate. He said we should put a black cloth of mourning over the door. For those of you who don’t know, this house - particularly during last summer - cost us more financially, emotionally and spiritually than almost any other event in our relatively short lives.

To make a long story very short, God used this house and its problems as the last straw. The things we encountered were too much for us to

fix or analyze. It revealed the bitterness and doubt that had been growing in our hearts, somewhat unchecked. It revealed I found security in our savings account instead of God. It revealed we could not keep living as we had been, or we would continue to grow farther away from God, not closer.

But although God used the house and its problems to reveal all these things, by His grace and mercy, He also used these things to do necessary “surgery” on our hearts. To help us to rely on Him, instead of ourselves. To help us exercise faith instead of just noting the importance of faith. To see Him work through what seems like a tragedy to bring about redemption. To begin to learn to trust that what He gives us – although sometimes very painful – is always His very best for us. To rest in His protection and His love for us. To become much more aware of truth of spiritual warfare on a daily basis.

So although all of this came at great cost to us, God also used this house to bring more freedom financially, emotionally and spiritually.

As we have been walking through this unusual journey with Lili, we realized how good God was to give us the experience with our house last summer. It was stressful, overwhelming and dark at times. But God let us experience things we had known but not lived out: faith, dependence, trust. And that experience prepared us for our experience with Lili. We would be responding to things much differently if not for last summer.

And so, with that great present in mind, I do celebrate our house. I am thankful for:

-a house where a dear friend going to school can live with us

-a house where the imperfections point us to God

-a house that really is cute and nice, despite all its faults

-a house with a “mother” tree in the backyard: tall, strong and sheltering

-a house where we can have home group and entertain guests

-a house that is welcoming and warm

-a house that is a home