home

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When we walked in the front door of my parents’ house, I was arrested by the smells of home. Bacon frying.  Maple syrup boiling. Butter sizzling on a hot griddle. I compulsively reached for my phone to capture it. Then I remembered that there are limitations to what this device can do.

It’s because they’re moving. I want to capture all of it before the end comes. My parents bought this house when it was the product of severe neglect. The former occupants were lovers of this world and they left evidence of its darkness behind. 


My parents asked the Lord to make it a lighthouse. To remove the stain of its past and make it a home for their precious family. Year after year they worked hard to restore the broken places of the house as they sowed seeds of faith in their children. 


Today their house is a landmark of goodness. Everyone that has ever crossed the threshold was received with light and love, and if they were lucky, some of my mom’s legendary chocolate chip cookies.


I want to drink in every minute we have there because I don’t want it to go away, but that’s not how life works. Things change. 


Looking back, I am filled with hope. If God could take that run-down place and turn it into a majestic lighthouse, what can He do with me, a person? It didn’t happen overnight, it was a day-by-day consistent effort by my mom and dad to do the things that needed to be done. I woke up and saw my dad sitting in his recliner reading his Bible countless mornings, before he climbed out the window to get on a scaffold to scrape paint. My mom was up before the sun every day, engaging with the Lord before our days ever started. Then she filled the house with the smell I walked into yesterday, morning after morning. These simple acts of servitude are monuments of faithfulness that pointed us to eternity. Their faithfulness reminds me to do the next thing.


“If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve... but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.””

‭‭Joshua‬ ‭24:15‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

https://www.bible.com/bible/100/jos.24.15.nasb1995


Comments

  1. MaryApril 5, 2021 at 1:49 PM

    Oh I love this so much and such a rich testimony to your upbringing.

    ReplyDelete

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