Ordinary Time

Pause

Vision brings new understanding, like turning on a lamp in a dark room at night. Pray that God will bring new vision - and new understanding - to you as you consider the scripture and wait for insight.

Listen

Jesus answered, “Whoever loves me will keep my word. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words. The word that you hear isn’t mine. It is the word of the Father who sent me."

John 14:23-24

Think

What turns a house into a home? I think it is love, attention, normal days and nights, family routines, and memories. It takes time, it takes careful attention, and it takes wear and tear. Can you think right now of a house that you walk into and immediately feel at home? Pause and think about this home. What makes it special? What do you sense that makes you feel at home? Thank God for the family who lives there.

My vision is my mother-in-law’s home. I pull back the sliding glass back door (we never use the front door – too formal) and I am home. There is always something cooking on the stove, and always an entire meal of leftovers just waiting to be warmed in the oven. There is laughter, there are hugs, and there is a distinct feeling that Jesus lives there.

Jesus wants to be at home in our lives. It starts with our baptism – the family’s recognition that this child is set apart to be raised with Jesus at the core. For some it starts with our conversion – a recognition of our need for God and our asking Jesus into our lives. But that is just the beginning step. From there God begins the work of making our lives a home. It takes time and attention. It takes routine. There will be some wear and tear. But as we mature as Christ followers, others will notice that there is something special in the way we act and react. As God makes a home in us, we reflect the love of God back to those we meet.

David Burroughs

Pray

Thank you for loving me, God. Thank you for caring enough about me to want to make your home in my life. I am willing to make room for you – to move the furniture and alter my routines. I want to be conscious of you in every moment and in every "room" in my life. Help me to be comfortable and open and to reflect your love to those I meet today. Amen.

Go

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art -
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Ancient Irish hymn