What comes to mind when you hear the word homeless? Does it invoke an image or a feeling? I've heard the word homeless used more this week than ever before and it's got me thinking.
When I wrote my last blog post I told you all that we were set to close on our house in less than two weeks. And then two weeks turned into two months. The waiting was more difficult than I could have anticipated. So many times I thought about sharing an update with you all but now I am glad I didn't. Because things don't always go as planned. That's life. Or so my mom would say as my teenage self rolled my eyes.
I started out in faith. "We've got this! The Lord will provide!" And then the delay came. And it wasn't just once but multiple times I was told to "wait." I do not like to wait. I like to DO. So many things have been brought to the surface. I'm pretty sure I learned about the refiner's fire in Sunday School growing up. I was told the metal worker ( I may be messing this up. Feel free to correct me) would heat the metal and any impurities would come to the surface to be scraped off. When the heat got turned up in my life, so to speak, some ugly things surfaced. If it hadn't been for my scheduled daily quiet time, I'm a creature of habit, I would have completely gone off the rails. But in the early mornings with my Bible and coffee in hand my perspective always came back into focus. It was the evening meltdowns my patient husband endured that were tough. Can I just take a moment to thank God for giving me such a long suffering husband!
Wait.... Wait... Now.
Raise your hand if you can relate. God gives us dreams and makes provision. But sometimes we are to simply be still and wait. If the song "To Those Who Wait" by Bethany Dillon were on vinyl I would have completely worn it out by now. The chorus says "Lord today you know what I need to do. But you can do more in my waiting than in my doing I can do." With lots of pretty Ooooooo's mixed in. Truth. I had to constantly remind myself of this truth because the waiting is hard.
Onto what you came here for. We closed on our house this Tuesday.
We are officially out of the house. I know you are wondering where we are living. It's what everyone keeps asking me. I talked about closing our house so much at work that when the day finally came my co-workers asked me repeatedly "so are you homeless!?"
They are all very well meaning and sweet, knowing I was looking forward to the day. But that word surprised me. "Homeless?" I repeated "No, we aren't homeless" I would say. We sold our house but we have a home.
I see homeless people everyday. I work in downtown Little Rock and they walk by the windows in front of the coffee shops I frequent. They are the ones I picture when I hear the word homeless. But are they truly homeless? I've been pondering this concept this week. What it means to have a home and the security we find in the familiar.
Do you know what the majority of people around the globe call home? I've rocked a baby on a straw mat inside a hut with a dirt floor in Africa. Where the orphan children made jump ropes out of vines and entertained themselves for hours. I've eaten dinner at a little wooden table in a similar style open hut house in Peru. All while the owners sat on the dirt floor. What an honor. I've eaten the tiniest piece of birthday cake made by a generous missionary's wife in Brazil for HER birthday because she shared with the village. I've experienced hospitality in foreign places that made them feel less so because of the people there.
How's that for some perspective?
“Behold me, here I am; thy little handmaiden Acceptance-with-Joy and all that is in my heart is thine.”
― Hinds' Feet on High Places
― Hinds' Feet on High Places
I took the picture of the little yellow flower above. As the missionaries prepared my team's dinner that night at the YWAM base in Colombia I found her smiling up at me surrounded by concrete. And the quote above came to mind as I had been reading "Hinds' Feet on High Places" on the long boat rides up and down the Amazon River that week.
I'm still thinking on this but for now, to me...home is where I am surrounded by loving people. Sharing life together. What is home to you?
