**This lovely post is brought to you by my writerly friend, Victoria! **
If my blog were Sarah-fied it would be called “Our Apartment Squished On The Corner”. I am so crazy excited to be guest-posting on Our House in the Middle of Our Street today and I’d like to write about exactly that: houses, streets, and where we belong.
Over the years my idea of ‘home’ has shifted. In high school, home was a place I was desperate to leave. In college, home was a fluid concept: dormitories, basements, and guest bedrooms. As a young married and new mom, this settled rambler finds that home is a place where I have begun to lay down roots.
I do enjoy homemaking, though I’m far from winning any sort of Pinterest 'Home of the Year' award. But if I’m not careful, I start to believe that home is confined to four walls, a ceiling, and a toy-strewn floor.
Home, if by ‘home’ we mean a place of belonging, cannot be defined with geographic coordinates. C.S. Lewis’ words are helpful, “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” God has etched eternity into our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Which means, ultimately, we belong where God is. We were created to live in perfect fellowship with our Creator. Perfect fellowship that cracked under the weight of Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). Perfect fellowship that Christ came to mend (Romans 5:8).
That heart-tug we feel as we go about homemaking, knowing that our work is never quite done, is answered by Christ.
Having a Jesus-centered, God-ward focused view of our homes matters. It frees us to pursue God, even with laundry piled a mile high (though keeping an ordered house is a good idea). It frees us to spend resources on God’s kingdom, rather than the next decor fad (though decor is not evil in of itself). It frees us to be hospitable even with humble surroundings, because our goal is to serve not impress. It frees us to be gracious with ourselves in our homemaking shortcomings, because Christ overcame all.
Whether you live in a house in the middle of your street, an apartment on the corner, or somewhere in between - let your view of home be shaped by who God is and what He’s done for you. Namely, that He has made a way for you to be home with Him forever through His son Jesus Christ.
Friend, come home.
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