A Prayer for an Imperfectly Perfect Home

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.