Our house is WARM!

It's official. Our house is now definitely, officially, completely our home.

Not only because have we done minor damage to it already.


Not simply because we've repainted a room or two. Not even because we've unpacked more boxes and hung pictures on the walls. This house is our home now because we invited people into it.

On Friday night, we had a House-Warming/Blessing Open House. We invited lots of people from both Dave's and my churches and random friends from around town. We even got a lovely surprise visit from some friends from Indiana!

What a great night we had. It was CRAZY, no doubt. There were some moments that I wondered if fire-code laws apply to private homes. Had there been a fire, I'm not sure any of us could have made it out our 2 small doors! But it was so fun and so fulfilling to get to open our doors to friends, to serve them food and wine, and to simply enjoy their company.

At the height of the party, Dave and I invited people to join with us in officially blessing the house. Dave wrote an awesome prayer of blessing, in which we read 3 Scripture passages, each one representing the variety of hopes we have for this house.

As a prayer of thanksgiving for the incredible GIFT of this house, we read from Isaiah:
But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy....They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

As a prayer for hospitality, a reading from Romans:
Welcome one another, then, just as Christ has welcomed you, in order to bring praise to God,

As a prayer for friendship, Acts...
Then Paul went upstairs, and after he had broken bread and eaten, he continued to converse with them until dawn; then he left.

And as a prayer for peace, the Psalms...
The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.

It was such a gift to be able to invite people from our communities to join us in asking God's blessing on this house in this way. For these are truly the prayers of my heart for this house... I am SO thankful to God for it! Truly, it felt like God dropped the perfect house into our laps. And I want so much for it to be a place of welcome and hospitality and friendship. Food is one of my love-languages, I think. And in what can sometimes feel like a chaotic windstorm that we call "being pastors," I pray that our home would indeed be a place of peace and respite and rest for all who enter... especially US!

PS- Our Indiana friends have vouched for the guestroom. It's comfy! And it's open! Come bless our house some more with YOUR presence therein!