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| An ornament lovingly made by our sweet, Jean Carlos |
(In the month of
December hosted a sweet boy from Colombia in hopes of finding him a forever
home. This post was one of a series that I wrote the day I took him to theairport to fly back to Colombia. If you’d like to learn more about hosting a Colombian
child or international adoption please leave a comment below or contact
Embraced by Grace directly).
I never knew a clean house could be so boring. But what I
learned through our journey hosting and advocating for a Colombian child is
that dirty houses speak of live lived in the mess. Dirty houses speak of being too
busy playing to waste time on something temporary like mopping the floor.
I have new stains in my living room carpet. I’m not quite
sure what they are or how the
y got there but I’m certain they weren’t there
three weeks ago. There’s something sticky and unidentified on my dining room
table. And earlier in the week I found Goldfish crackers on my bathroom
counter. (Can anyone tell me why this would be?)
As I came home to a wreck of a home after taking our sweet
Jean Carlos to the airport to fly back to Colombia I began to pick up, and
vacuum, and wipe away the mess. When I was all done I was left with something
that was in stark contrast to my heart. You see my heart was in anguish, all
broken and bloody in the midst of an all-too-quiet house. The freshly shined
countertops did nothing to stop the tears from streaming down my cheeks. And it
was in that moment that I realized it…
I have a friend whose house is notoriously messy. She has an
eighteen-month-old boy that is constantly moving to say the least. When you go
to her home you are not struck by how clean her floors are or her most recent
Pinterest-perfect projects. What you do notice is that her home is full of
life. Her hospitality is the easy kind. The pour yourself a drink, put your
feet up on the couch, and don’t worry about spilling kind. She has chosen to
live life in the mess.
And that is what I would like to do as well…
God, help me to not desire a sterile castle where nothing gets broken and everything is always in it’s place. Instead help me to desire and cultivate a place where we do life amidst the messiness. Please help me to have a home where we experience the bloody brokenness of real relationships, where we’re all having too much fun to clean all the time, and where we spend more time on eternal investments than temporary ones. Amen.
Amen!
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