Home, Sweet Beach House

I finished my last day of work!

I finished it in just the right place - Crystal Beach. I said goodbye to a community that felt like home to me, with teachers and a principal who have experienced tremedous loss and turmoil, and yet only speak of blessings and strength.

My work on Bolivar Peninsula has been an incredible part of my story in understanding what home really is. We talked about it at my final group at Crenshaw Elementary and Middle School - Home is the people that are strength when you are weak, the people that are weak with you when you're both weak, and the place where you can be you - together or falling apart - and be completely loved. Home is seeing and celebrating the image of Christ in one another. I've never seen a group of people more dedicated to doing exactly that.

Now that work if officially over, a very exciting transition is starting. The paperchain countdown is getting shorter, weird traveling dreams are coming more frequently, and now all of my time is to be dedicated to sitting at the feet of Jesus as He prepares my heart, spending quality time with those who are my Home, engaging my church to buy bricks to create Home and houses for orphans at Ten Thousand Homes, and all the busy to-do list kind of technical details.

This week I am so thankful and absolutely delighted to be staying at a beach house with my family, basking in quality time with an endless supply of queso in our bellies and sand between our toes. Seriously... can you think of anything more wonderful?

We are having a blast! It's almost surreal that we are all here together. My sister, Sunny, came in like a Christmas hurricane and, before we could say "Ho Ho Ho", we had a fully-decorated Christmas tree, lights and garland on every inch, and so much Christmas cheer, you can't help but feel Home. Nesting in full force, we laugh at the ways each other creates a "home" feel. Mom buys SO much food, Sister decorates everything, and I bring random details -  Christmas air fresheners, hand soaps, etc.

I took a walk on the beach this morning and was thinking of how different and how much more difficult it is to minister to your family than to strangers and "the least of these". At least for me it is. I was frustrated with myself at first because I feel like I keep getting it wrong - I just am not loving my family members with the love of Christ like I'd like to. My prayers before spending time with my family are so much more Christ-like than my words and actions. And they are the people I love the most.

What's up with that?

God gave me a grace-check right then and there on the beach. He reminded me that we are all broken and I won't ever get it right according to my own abilities.

I won't ever love perfectly. But He does because I can't.

He can love us perfectly through holiday stress, family struggles and through all of our imperfect love. All we can do is remember Who He Is and how He came to such an imperfect world in the most imperfect circumstances so that we could receive perfect love. We can only be amazed that we don't have to get it all right, but that we can always seek Him and seek to be more like Him.

A virgin gave birth to the Son of Man in a manger so that He could bring light and love to the world like we've never seen it - and then be hung on a cross so that we could receive that light and love when we never deserved it. What a perfect time of year to remember that circumstances are beyond our control, and we can only love with all we've got and forgive one another for not loving perfectly.

So, as I head back to the beach house, I will take a moment to say thank you for my incredible family and pray that I love them a little more like Christ today than yesterday. My prayer for my family, this Christmas week, and you is that you experience Home in Christ and surrender expectations to a Holy and undeserved grace.

Merry Christmas!