We took our new staff to retreat at a home we rented across the water, a couple hours southwest of Seattle. It was a woodsy, eclectic house built on the bluff overlooking Puget Sound. As the guys made dinner one evening, I walked out through the towering evergreen trees to the edge of the bluff and listened to worship music mingled with the sound of lapping waves on the shore below. The sun was setting, streaking the sky with shades of pink. It was good to be filled by the quiet, breathe deeply of the peace and give thanks for the gift of the moment. I turned my back to the water view and began to head back to the house, keeping my eyes on the uneven ground below my flip flops so I wouldn’t end up on my face in the dirt. Part of the way back, I felt the nudge to look up. What I saw was the house in the fading twilight, glowing from the lamplight within, framed by the guardian trees. I have a particular fondness for the photograph I took in that moment. The picture imprinted in my memory is partially sweet because of good memories from our week there, but I think mostly because it is a picture of who I think Jesus is: Light and warmth after wandering in from the cold. A wide-open space after being under cover of darkness. Welcome. Refuge. Peace. Laughter. Home.
“The eternal God is a dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” Deuteronomy 33:27
God help us be even a fraction of this for others. The world needs this kind of HOME. True home—Jesus.
What words would you say characterize your home and the environment you’ve created there? What characteristics of God would you hope people encounter when they are there with you? Who do you know that might need to be welcomed into ‘true home’? Give thanks for the goodness that already exists in yours and ask Holy Spirit to give you one or two simple steps you can take to make it a place where His presence is the primary source of warmth and light.
