A House or a Home

John and I have lived in four houses during our marriage. That's probably an average amount. How many have you lived in? 

Our first home was a mobile home, brand new, fresh with the smell of new paneling. It was long and narrow with two bedrooms. It was a nice start. We lived in a mobile home court in Marshalltown for about seven months then moved it out to an acreage near my parents home where we lived for 15 years. We had a garden and planted many trees.

Next we moved to a nearly new house in State Center. It had a huge yard that was beautiful and we had a garden. We were neighbors to the nursing home and just across the street a ways was the high school. It was a nice house but I wasn't happy living in town, even though we were on the edge of town. We lived there five years and planted many trees.

Our next move was to a dream-come-true acreage between State Center and Marshalltown. We had 18 acres of land and a nearly new house with three bedrooms. The best part was the acreage. We had a little shed that was just right to start our sheep flock for the boys' 4-H projects. The yard was awful. There was no yard really, just a mess of weeds and broken concrete and as we soon found out the water ran down the hill into the basement. We has so much work to do there, still we were very happy there and planted many trees. We lived there 25 years adding three huge buildings for storage of hay and for the flock of 50 sheep.

Our final move was to our current house in Ankeny where we planned to be near the grandchildren in Grimes and retire. The brand new house met all my requirements and John was satisfied with it. The house is comfortable and has a small yard and we have good neighbors. The grandchildren part only worked for a year or two when a job offer changed the location of our son and his family. They moved to North Carolina then to Virginia where they are settled now. It's a long drive for a visit now so we usually fly.

"In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you," (John 14:2 NIV).

We don't have to worry about where we will live in the future. I'm thankful that Jesus has that all planned. May we enjoy our earthly dwellings and rejoice in the home that is guaranteed for us one day.