I have recently been reading about the idea of creating a home where the love of God is reflected so all who live there can know and be reminded of God's love on a daily basis.
The idea itself is important. Shouldn't the place we spend the most time, the place we feel safest, the place we seek comfort and repose from the demands and distractions of the outside world be a place where we know and experience God's love?
The words of Christ today in the Gospel are a fantastic reminder that not only can we create atmospheres that reflect the reality of our belief in God's love in our lives, but that God Himself dwells with us. Pondering God dwelling with us can change how we approach a lot of things in our lives differently. It imbues all of our work, creation, rest, relationships, and homes with the importance of God incarnating the world through us.
The idea of creating an intentional home that reflects the love of God makes me pause.
I think that a home that reflects God's love as one that welcomes and values each person who lives there or visits as an irreplaceable person created with dignity. A reflection of God's love would be creating a space where beauty is valued because God gave us beauty as an expression of His creating power and our ability to collaborate with it using our own gifts.
A home that provides a place of safety, comfort, and peace for those who live within those four walls mirrors God's love where our ultimate safety, comfort, and lasting peace can be found.
Our earthly homes made up of laminate floors, old comfy chairs, and windows that may not be in perfect proportion to the scale of our rooms can be the physical place that nurtures the longing for a heavenly home that our souls long for.
Lord, increase my longing for You. Deepen my appreciation for You in my daily life and home.
Christy Isinger is a wife and mom to five lovely, loud children and lives in northern Canada. When not homeschooling, she is a devoted reader of English literature from Jane Austen to Agatha Christie. She writes about the beauty of faith, life, and the home at her blog and is the co-host of the Fountains of Carrots Podcast. She is the author of our Blessed Conversations: The Ten Commandments study found here. You can find out more about her here.
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