A Dark And Quiet Room

Right now, my family doesn’t really fit well into the house where we are living. The children are all packed into two connected rooms. Arianna needs to go through the boys’ room to get to the space that she shares with Justice. Gabrielle doesn’t even have a room of her own; we’ve hung a curtain in the sunroom, dividing it in two, and called it her room.

Most of our stuff is in storage. Yesterday I wanted to get my hands on a couple of books, but I didn’t even know where to start looking. We are constantly looking for things that we own but are packed away…somewhere.

Noah has suddenly decided to enter “the Terrible Twos”?, which means that he wants his own way, and he wants to touch and destroy everything around him. Although we have tried, we cannot keep him out of Arianna’s room. So he has trashed different things belonging to her, and there doesn’t seem to be anything that we can do to stop him.

Soon, we will be moving. Soon we will be in a house that will better fit our family. Arianna will have a room which can be secured, so that Noah can’t get to her things. Gabrielle will actually have four walls. We will be able to put all the books on bookshelves and not have to wonder if that thing we’re looking for is locked in storage somewhere. It will be so much better than where we are now. But for now, we are in transition.

This world is like a house where we live. But we don’t really fit here. So we struggle with the problems in this world. Things don’t work right. Petty annoyances grate on our nerves. And then there are the big issues. People hate each other. Those we love, die. Those who hate us, prosper.

And then there are our bodies, gradually wearing out, day after day. We can’t walk or think or laugh quite as well as we used to. The light of life grows dim and, one day, will go out.

But Jesus spoke of going away to prepare a place for those whom He loves. “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”? (John 14:1-3) Right now, He is working on the new house, and there will be enough space for all of us. The dining room will fit the entire family, with room for guests. Everyone will have a room with four walls. Nothing will ever break again, be it a doorknob or a computer or a friendship. Everything will work right, the way that it should. And we will be together forever.

But we’re not there yet. So we are called to live with perseverance. For now, we need to be content where Jesus has placed us. But remember, we won’t be in this house forever. Soon we will be moving out into that perfect brand-new house.

Soon.

I’m beginning the third straight week of working on the new house. In the evenings I come home from work and hustle down to the new house to put in a few hours, trying to get the house ready for us to buy and occupy. This has been a frustrating experience for me. I’m not very good at working with my hands, and I find that I miss my wife and children as I have been away so much. At the same time, this time has been eye-opening to me. In particular, I’m beginning to see all the illustrations of God’s truth that are sitting right in front of me. So, to try to make the best use of this experience, I will be writing about these thoughts, using this current experience of house-building as the springboard for these thoughts. I have a few articles lined up already, and, if I think of more, I’ll write them down too.