I am reading aloud a beautiful book to my mom. It is called the White Stone by Esther de Waal. We read a chapter or two each day and ask questions or talk about what we are learning.

The book speaks to our letting go of people and places in our lives. It is a book about grief but also about remembering. She details how homes become so much a part of who we are. They are especially woven into our memories. 

I walk through my house and see my dad everywhere. He is lying on the couch. I see him seated at the dining table or laughing with the daughters. Images of Dad firmly imprinted in my mind’s eye. The sensation is bittersweet. 

The house of the Lord is a phrase often in my favorite Psalms. “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

With so many people displaced from home, with our own home lives disrupted by loss or fear, this importance of home becomes even more profound. 

I ask myself…

What makes a home?

What do I need to feel at home?

How does the house of God invite and call to me?

What does it mean to dwell?

I invite you to consider…

What do your stories and memories of home teach you?

What memories of loss or joy speak to you?

What stories does your home trigger in you that you need to hear or remember?

God bless you as you prayerfully consider both your earthly and heavenly homes and what God is speaking to you. 

“By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.” – Proverbs 24:3-4