Where Is Home?

Last week, I talked about how making small decisions can have lasting impacts on your life and possibly the lives of your descendants. When Hubby and I decided to sell our house in Boise, Idaho and move to Rapid City, South Dakota, we didn’t realize how much confusion would come with that.

We were wondering, where is home? Both Hubby and I still refer to Boise as home. We talk about how back home, we knew good craftsmen. Back home, we went out to eat at these restaurants. And so on. Then we talk about home being the place we’re housesitting. When we’re out running errands, we say we need to get home. With our new house, we talk about that being home. Hubby has to run home to let the painters in. We decided we’re over-homed, and it’s very confusing. My mind is messed up with the unsettling feeling that no place is really home and by that I mean, there’s no place that has my stuff other than an unheated storage unit.

The house we bought is an older home that’s been mostly redone inside. We decided (there’s that word again) that we wanted to fix up the few things left undone so we’d be more comfortable. Countless hours and dollars later, it’s almost ready for us to move in. As Hubby said, there were a lot of problems but none of them were minor. It’s so much work and worry, but we hang on to the hope that after the mess, things will be much better.

As we go through the process of making our home ready for us to live there, we’ve watched the tragedy that hit Texas and other southern states this past week. Days without electricity or water. Homes with waterfalls inside them from the broken pipes. How does one recover from that? Do you tear it all down and start all over or just repair what’s broken? I’ve seen marvelous things done on HGTV with houses that were dilapidated and trashed, but there are so many houses that need massive repairs. Where is home for those families while repairs are made? How many craftsmen will it take to help people get their homes livable again? I was glad to hear they’re now a disaster area so maybe they can more help for rebuilding.

I’m so happy when I see people reaching out to each other, giving each other support, and being strong in the midst of the calamity. I’ve always said if you want to unite people, give them a common enemy. In this case, the enemy was Mother Nature. I hope and pray that when they get the mess cleaned up, things will be much better for them. Let’s all unite and support the effort of people to rebuild and put things back to normal.

Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others (Philippians 2:4).