Home
I went for my daily walk around my neighborhood here in Florida. It was hot but sunny and breezy so I didn’t care. In fact, I enjoyed the sweat releasing toxins that have surely built up after being sick this week. It felt good. My AirPods weren’t working so I decided to go without music and just reflect…on God and nature. I’ve walked and run these streets many times but today I noticed the houses in my neighborhood and how different each one was.
I live in an older, established neighborhood with a variety of greenery and various-sized homes built over the years. I noticed everything from “second-home-in-Florida”-type houses to large, roomy residences standing tall around our beautiful lake. I noticed a wide range of colors and styles. Some had a very Key West colorful palette. Others bore soft hues of browns, blues and greens. One home even spoke of a western theme with a large wood-framed front porch. There were many ranch-style and several two-story homes with no real consistency of order as each stood together. Collectively, it is my neighborhood. And I love it! I love the diversity of colors, styles and sizes and recognize that these houses, so different from one another, are someone’s home. Some are meticulously cared for and a few disheveled for a season just waiting for a little renewed love and care. These homes that people dwell in reflect our own community of humanity. Whether we rent or own a large, manicured sprawling abode or a small cottage, we call it home. It is a part of ourselves and who we are. We decorate, arrange plants and furniture, clean, cook and love where we live.
Beautiful Palette
We are like these homes, so different and beautiful in our own way. And yes, like some homes now and then, we are disheveled in seasons of our life. Perhaps we don’t have time to care for ourselves because we are caring for something or someone else. Sometimes we are pristine and manicured on the outside reflecting or hoping for confidence. Sometimes I miss when my home was disheveled because of children running through! It is cleaner and neater now, but so very quiet in this season of life.
Regardless of the season we are living in, we change and grow and our homes often reflect the changes. There is a certain delight in sweeping our own floor or mowing our own grass or planting our flowers. It has become part of us. On my walk, I tried to imagine some of the folks who lived in these homes I was admiring. Are they elderly? Do they have kids or pets? Are they a young couple? Who are they? I do not know them but I received pleasure and comfort walking past the dwellings they call home and I felt I was being introduced to someone new.
Unique Thumbprint
Like each home, we are also different and unique, yet the same, as part of the family of God’s humanity. So then, how can we say one is beautiful and another is not? We take such pleasure in creating and designing our own personal spaces to dwell in. Likewise, God took pleasure in creating each of us with such uniqueness; painting using a wide variety of brushes, colors and strokes and loves each one of us so dearly! Like the assorted homes in my own neighborhood that establishes a community, God has created an array of people that establishes humanity.
And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. (Genesis 1:31)
He created individuals like a thumbprint, each with its own unique blend of colors, lines and parts, but loves the whole body of His family as one. WE are God’s thumbprint! Let us try to emulate God’s way.
Tonya Noren
May 29, 2021