Resting at Home
Discovering Peace in the Season of "Yet to Be"
Most every weekend we pass through an older part of town that is slowly transitioning from residential to commercial property. The slow process over the 20 years that we have lived here has been painful to watch.
While the houses have often been abandoned, gutted, and then demolished, there is one ranch-style home that we have watched over the last couple of years that did not meet the same demise.
Sitting abandoned for countless months, we assumed that house was slated for demolition. However, the bulldozers and land levelers never came. Instead, the house and the gravel drive seemed to be slowly swallowed by the ever-growing tall grass.
One morning as we drove by, we noticed a large wooden for sale sign placed in the front yard of this acre-size property. Looking towards the house, we noticed that the weathered hackberry tree that had shaded it had been cut down, exposing the fact that the siding and gutters had been removed.
Passing by more slowly on the return trip, we saw that the structure had been lifted up and was now resting on thick, steel girders that rested on concrete pilings. And a few weekends after that, we noticed a large flatbed truck parked in the tall grass, parallel to the house.
Approaching the lot a few weeks after that, we saw that the house had been moved onto the flatbed, driven up to the road, and then parked almost like a billboard with the large for sale sign posted beside the cab.
And there, it has sat for months.
Each time I have driven by it lately, there has been a stirring in my heart. Learning to pay attention to those nudges, a little prayerful pondering brought these thoughts to mind. There is something about a rescued house full of memories, sitting on a flatbed truck, prepared to pull out on a new journey of memory-making. It's a picture of readiness: closure from the past and anticipation of the future. And, I am finding sweet solace in the thought, "Wherever they go, they will already be home."
As I reflected on that imagery further, it occurred to me that there are many people in that same position... a season of waiting for the "yet to be." And perhaps, you are one of them. Released from where you've been planted, and yet, pausing because the new thing has not quite opened up before you.
It is in that place that songwriter, Martha Munizzi vividly captures God's prophetic word of hope in which we can rest. "So when you can't see what tomorrow holds, and yesterday is through, remember, I know the plans I have for you" [I Know the Plans].
Peace, Beloved. The One who said, "Before you were formed, I knew you" [Jeremiah 1:5] is the very One who speaks afresh, even as you are reading this, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'" [29:11].
You don't have to postpone joy, waiting for "it" to happen. You can rejoice right now. Why? Because the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit - the character, the nature, and the mind of Christ resides within you. You are already at home! Precious one, it is in the place of waiting for the unknown, that you can live "resting at home," secure in the refuge of God's love, hidden in Christ, and comforted by the Holy Spirit.
And as you wait in the season of "yet to be," may you be released from any paralysis, thinking you are stuck until the door opens. It's quite the opposite! "This resurrection life you received from God... is adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike, "What's next, Papa?'" [Romans 8:15 MSG]. Know this, precious one. "In every condition, in sickness and health, in poverty's vale, or abounding in wealth. At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea, as thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be" [How Firm a Foundation, Author Unknown]. May you live, "adventurously expectant." Amen.
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