When I was in college, I had a great professor who was also a pastor and theological fact checker/advisor for Hollywood movies. He was one of few I remember that actually required us to think. There was a book we had to read, I can’t remember the name now where we had to abstract the underlying themes and write a paper about them. I’ll never forget that paper. The underlying theme I got out of the book was about the idea of “home” and how “water” is connected to that idea, as it related to the story, the Bible and to God. Water is an interesting representation of God through creation as it has three forms but one substance, ice, water, steam & God, Jesus, Holy Spirit. Also, we will never be truly home until we are in the presence of God as relationship with Him is what we were created for. In the book I am currently reading, the author had a similar idea. We are all merely renting a space on this earth as our true and eternal homes are in heaven with our creator.
I think the theme of “home” has been a strong one in my own life, as I’m sure it is in most people’s throughout their various journeys. Being a kid that bounced back and forth between parents, and getting to move roughly 25 times during my 37 years on this earth, home has always been physically rented. Although my parents owned homes growing up, when you go back and forth, it doesn’t really feel like either is truly home. Such a strange psychological journey home plays in our lives. It’s where we live, and form and develop. It should be a safe place of nurturing and fond memories. I have many fond memories growing up and many more in the homes we’ve rented as adults. I have been very blessed with our home journey. We have yet to own our own home though, something I have longed for, for forever, but especially since we started having babies 13 years ago.
We have a strong aversion to debt in general so getting into massive amounts of debt also sounded quite awful for those last 13 years. We had a goal of paying off all of our college loans before buying a home. By the time we did that and saved enough for a down payment, the world shut down in 2020 and the real estate market exploded. Our dreams seemed so unattainable of ever owning our own home. We felt incredibly stuck. We looked at real estate for over a year before we realized we weren’t excited to buy what we could afford in Washington. So we continued to pray. We started expanding our ideas of what our home could look like.
There were a few options we came up with. We could rent for forever or until the market went back down or our landlords kicked us out, bless them. They have been angels sent from the Lord. Or, we could settle for a dumpy 1000 square foot house on zero land for over half a million. Or, we could move out of state and buy a mansion on acreage for the same price. Or, we could invest in land and build a home. None of these ideas are what we had envisioned or particularly planned for our family home.
The Lord is so faithful. At that moment of stuck, we dropped to our knees and gave it all back to the Lord. I finally came into agreement with the idea that this wasn’t our true home so where we lived didn’t really matter in light of eternity. I also agreed with the truth that His will is the best for us. We placed our dreams in his hands and opened ours wide to receive what He had for us. The last few years have been a whirlwind of the Lord doing beyond what we could ask or imagine. I am excited to share His glory through that journey! More to come under the Finding Home tab.