The Little Rental That Could

Today I did something that I haven't done in several years. I opened my home. We had 3 sets of neighbors come over and we served them hot apple cider, banana bread, apple bread, cupcakes for George's birthday. We gave them all little gifts and basically just hung out for nearly 3 hours.

A tremendous amount of work has been done on this little rental to make it presentable to others. Its a small miracle that we were able to have people over and feel great about it.

But the biggest miracle of all is that a chapter has ended for me. I wanted/needed a season where I felt like my home was safe, my time was strictly for my little family and a few select friends and...its going to aound horrible and selfish, but its been several years since I had any desire to open my home and have people around.

I'm not exactly sure what prompted my over-protectiveness of my home. Maybe it was the years of pastoring when I felt like my time and space belonged to an entire church of people. Maybe it was from blended family issues. Maybe it was simply because I had a little baby and wanted his first years to be relatively calm and ordered. But regardless of all that analytical stuff....

It was really really really fun. Shane has a very special gift of hospitality, and I absolutely loved watching him serve our neighbors today. And little George is such a people person...he ran from room to room barely able to contain his excitement that our home was full of people.

I would never have thought this little rental, which still doesn't necessarily feel like home to me, could be the setting that the Lord would use to get me functioning again in the hospitality way.

But isn't that just like Him? He uses whatever He wants to bring beauty and joy to others. Even a little rental house for a little family trying to serve Him and find His purpose in hard times.

Lets Have a Beautiful Life

As usual its been way too long since I've written anything. I needed a jump start to get going again and tonight I got it.

I was driving to my sis-in-law's home to watch the premier of Biggest Loser. My mind was on whether or not Shane could calm George down enough to get him to sleep at a decent time...when I drove off they were wrestling and it didn't look to me like it was ending any time soon. But straight ahead of me was something that got my attention. I had seen it about a month ago, but the setting was very different then.

My sweet nephew was born on Aug 16. George and I were able to fly to Portland in time for his birth, and then we stayed in the NW for almost a month before Shane joined us and we all flew back to Colorado together. The trip was a life-changing, encouraging, rejuvenating time for me. I might write about some of my experiences, but tonight I need to write about what I saw.

Its something I've seen before. And I pray I will see it often again. Over the years it has inspired me, comforted me, and this time it helped heal me.



What I saw a month ago from my parents' front yard was the full moon rising over Mt. Rainier. I grew up with beautiful views of the Mountain, and I am accustomed to seeing sights such as these. However this time, my eyes couldn't stop staring and my heart drank it in. Interesting how true it is that you don't know what you have (sometimes) until its gone. I even slept with my shades open that night so if I woke up I could look outside and continue to gaze.

So tonight, I'm driving, my mind going a million miles a minute and I look up. I see a beautiful full moon and it brought tears to my eyes to realize that its the same moon...just a different setting. I stopped at a stop light and looked all around. Ahead of me is this gorgeous moon. Behind me are the Rocky Mountains and the sun is setting behind them. Above me is an absolutely stunning evening sky, complete with pink, orange and purple clouds. And believe it or not, there was even a little lightning and thunder (my mom would've loved that part).

The whole scene was breathtaking.

And something clicked. A spark finally lit. With all of my heart I loved being here. A song was playing from the CD I put in the car. One of my dearest friends made it for me a few years back. The singer was singing, "Its the time we were made for....Lets have a beautiful life....We all have the chance to do the things we were meant to do....We all have the chance to be the people we were meant to be....Its the time we were made for. Lets have a beautiful life."

I intend to do just that.