We're Home (For Now)

Once again, it has been a while since I have posted (I promise I will get better about this).  But, I have a good reason.  The Prairie Parsonage crew has been busy packing and unpacking.   One 600 mile move, one installation service, a visit from our family in Montana, three molars and a few first steps ago, we arrived at our new home in Iowa.  A lot can happen in a short amount of time
We are finally settled (if you ignore the unpacked boxes in our garage and basement) and we are loving our new home.  It has wood floors, two stories, built in china cabinets and character galore (the good kind).  The backyard has the largest and best sledding hill in town and trees that tower over us.  It is the kind of house I imagined myself having. 

The only problem is that it isn't really ours.  It is a parsonage.  Although I love that we don't have to do any maintence, fix things that are broken, or even pay the light bill, part of me is sad that we don't own it.  The reason is this.  This won't be the home our grown children come home to.  Even if we retire in our little town in Iowa, we won't retire in this house.  Our kids will never really have a childhood home to come home to.  My grandkids will not see where their daddy learned to ride his bike without training wheels.  They won't know where mommy hid during games of hide and seek.  They won't know this because we will no longer live here.

That is the downside of ministry.  But, ministry in so many ways, teaches us lessons that we need to learn.   None of us is truely home.  There is something inherent in a woman that makes her want to make a house a home.  That is why we paint, clean, decorate and garden.  But, no matter what we do, it is only a temporary dwelling on our way to our eternal home.  And although I love anything that has to do with decorating, my eternal home will be more beautiful than I could ever imagine. 

1 Corinthians 2:9 promises us,"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him."

Our Home (For Now)

I guess in the long run, it doesn't matter how many times I rearrange the living room furniture (or if I ever get that new couch I've been wanting), where my children come "home" to as adults, or if I get those shelves hung straight.  What matters most is whether or not I loved God with my whole heart and I did everything I could to point others to him.  Because someday, when we leave this earth, I will finally be to my one true home.