This week our Missionary Daughter will be coming "home" from Brazil for a few months. I use the term home loosely because home for her has taken on many faces.
The home she grew up in,
the home she ministered in India for 10 months at the age of 15,
the home base she trained - lived and was sent out from at YWAM, Chico,
the home for the past 2 years in Brazil,
the home we now dwell in ,
the one she rests in when she is in the states.
that home is more than an address
that home is our dwelling place
that home is where your family is
and we often have more than one family,
that home is where our heart is,
that home is where Jesus is.
She wrote about it here: Wheres your Heart?
I have been pondering that word "home" as we have been preparing for her to arrive.
Wanting to make a place - some space for her to feel she is home, she is loved, that she belongs.
a bed that welcomes her, with her own blanket and pillow and invites her to rest,a shelf for her to place some of her belongings and makes her feel she belongs,
a space in the closet that says hang your coat, and stay awhile.
And while all these things are important, tangible reminders that we care... I am reminded that the greatest thing I can do is just embrace her, and yet surrender her at the same time:
to the one who holds the keys, to her heart,
the one who is her dwelling place,
the one who says "your are mine,
you are secure, you are home in me."
Psalm 90:1 says,
"Lord you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations."
I love how the New Living Testament puts it:
"Lord, through all the generations you have been our home!"
I am looking forward to hugging her deep, to hearing her heart, to mini adventures as a family, to watching her connect with each of her siblings in that special way she does, and above all to just resting in our dwelling place, our home together.
He is our dwelling place, he is our home.
Resting in his love for us, resting in Him,