August 29 – God is the Architect of our Home

August 29 – God is the Architect of our Home
Hebrews 11:10

For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

The author of Hebrews is talking about Abraham, who had left his home, not knowing where he would end up.  He lived among foreigners, knowing that God would lead him to the land he had been promised.  His faith in God allowed him to live in nothing more than tents, knowing that there would come a time in eternity, when he would live in a city built by God.  That’s a lot of faith!

I grew up in homes owned by others.  Mom did her best, but because the church owned the homes, we were never really allowed to make them ours.  The only time she let us loose in a home was when we discovered we would be the last people living there; the congregation was building a new parsonage and this one would be torn down.  We were finally allowed to paint our rooms any color we liked; mom painted wonderful scenes on the back door. We put anything we wanted on the walls and she even let me write out sayings and Bible verses all over the upstairs bathroom wall.  We settled into that house like we had never before settled into a home.  In my memory, this is the house that was our home.

One thing Dad wanted for his family, since we would always live as transients, was a place that would be considered ours, so when Mom was in the hospital, just after having given birth to my brother, he signed papers which ensured that Bell’s Dell, seventeen acres of beautiful land was his.  Our family played in the hillsides, mowed the pastures, swam in the river and loved knowing that we were always in a place we could call home.

A sense of permanence seems to drive us. We want to have a home, no matter how small or large, no matter how simple or elaborate; we want a home.

Abraham had a home, but God called him away to begin a covenant relationship which would grow into a people numbering as many as the stars in heaven and grains of sand on the seashore.  He was willing to be nomadic while heading for his new home, assured that God would honor the covenant, but knowing even moreso that there was a future beyond living in tents in the promised land.  When he died, he was assured of a permanent home in heaven, built by God.

We look for permanence here on earth, yet we somehow miss that we are nomads in an alien land. We will always be looking and never finding it.  Even when we settle into a house and make it a home, it isn’t permanent.  We won’t find that until we finally end up in the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.