Home?

Hey, I know it's been a while (a long time, even.) Phil and I are still in California, and the Lord is still taking care of us. For instance, He has provided couches, a kitchen table with benches, a bed, and a vaccum sweeper-- we had no real plan for acquiring these things. But we did need them. The Lord used His people to bless us, and aren't givers blessed in the process of giving? The Lord is so good. I'd intended to write about how I'm homesick, but this came out instead. I'm reading in John Piper's book, Desiring God, about God's sovereignity and how, since He controls everything, everything in some way gives Him glory. Even blogging.

I have been wanting to talk about how California is different from Indiana. And what defines home. I'm learning alot about that. Phil is now my family, and California is my home. But I still miss my family, and California doesn't feel at all homey. I think that if California in some way resembled Indiana, I wouldn't feel so far away. And maybe it would be easier to miss my family. Like if it rained, or if there were nice, big, dark trees around where we lived. Something that gave me comfort. But it's always just sunny. Sun, sun, sun. Open fields that are brown and golden and hilly. Nothing is green here in the summer; even the trees are blackish green. It never rains in the summer, and that means no thunderstorms. I want rain like most people want sun. Phil has been trying to get me to open up to the possibility of not only accepting the dry heat around here, but liking it. But they've always been such fierce opponents, SUN or RAIN, that I'm afraid if I started to like the sun alot, I'd stop loving the rain. So I'm homesick.

I am enjoying the people here, though. And although (or maybe because) it's a little difficult for me sometimes here, I think the Lord might be trying to teach me that He's home, and He's enough. "Home" takes a while to grow. Our apartment does not feel like home yet. Phil doesn't exactly feel like family the way my family does.* But the Lord is the same, always. Always. And He is comfort. And His people feel like family and they love you like family, because you have the same Father and the Spirit through the Son.

We read these verses tonight. I'd like to share it as encouragement for us all:

"But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. And above all things have fervent love for one another, for 'love will cover a multitude of sins.' "

-- 1 Peter 4:7-8



*But he already loves me like my family. Our relationship just doesn't have the platform of years like the one that my family's is built on. It's just natural that it takes time.