Taking Root

I am glancing out my kitchen window, admiring the Live Oaks that grace our new backyard with shade and adventure and promise. The season is not quite Spring, but Winter is bowing gracefully out. And, I see it. Yesterday, it was not there, but today....


On a rainy Monday morning, two months ago, the movers arrived. Two miles down the road, our new house sat waiting for us to make it home. Not quite the dream we originally envisioned, it was God-given and God-inspired nevertheless. We were grateful....for the extra space, the low mortgage, the fresh start. My prayer, my promise was, "Lord, I will make the best of it. I will make it wonderful, no matter what."

Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

-Ephesians 5:15-16

First it was the movers - the broken gas grill handle, the grime down an entire side of our $4000 tempurpedic mattress, the rain. Then, it was every technician who came out to install our lives, and came out again and again to fix it - the cable, the internet, the security system - for the next 3 weeks. Then, it was work that came knocking at the wrong time keeping me from unpacking a single box. Then, a nasty stomach virus that ravished my son's little body and withered him. And, it was even the things we WANTED, the improvements to the house that we chose to make. It was everything - every opportunity to make the most of it, and I finally lost it, one month in.

Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

-Ephesians 5:19b

Down on my knees, I prayed. "I don't want this burden. Change my heart, O God."

Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

-Matthew 11:28-30

Yesterday, it was not there. But, today, there is a pink and yellow rose blooming on the thorny bush that I was considering uprooting. Afterall, thorns and toddlers don't mix. A single, tiny rosebud presents itself to a world that is still bare from Winter's chill. Seeing the beauty of this tiny flower, my heart is changed. I will keep the rosebush. I will plant my garden. I will bring in the roses to decorate this house...this becoming, home.

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

-2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Lord, make my house a home. Make my heart true.