Make Yourself at Home

Psalm 91:1

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High

will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

At the request of a friend, I nabbed Ken's phone (mine's still not 100%, more on that in a bit) and took a few pictures of the inside of our cottage.  The friend had commented that it was all lovely to see the front of my kayak on flat water with sun reflections, or various views of the shoreline, or all the flowers and all the outside things that I post while I'm here, but that perhaps a glimpse inside would be nice.

For that friend I sent an email with a more comprehensive virtual tour.  

For the purposes of this post, here's a few samples.

To be perfectly honest, the pictures makes it look bigger than it actually is.

It is most accurate to describe our summer home as 'modest,' 'rustic,' 'vintage.'  Even then, we're choosing words that spin things a tad lot.  We upgraded the bathroom about 10 years ago.  And we make sure we choose, new reliable replacements when an appliance burns out, because you just can't get a repair person out here easily at all.   All the regular maintenance of painting and plumbing and electric usually results in bringing things forward a little.  

But the bottom line is, the place is old.  Original windows.  Seventy's paneling that needs to be removed.  Quirky built in drawers that require you hold your face just right to get them open.  That kind of thing.  We're not talking about a recent build with all the structure and design features one might think of when imagining a "cottage property".

We're not that kind of summer place.  But we love it here.  Our kids and grandkids love it here.  And actually the word we most often use to describe it is 'home.'

The word for 'dwell' in Hebrew is 'yoshev'.  And just because I love how it looks....יֹשֵׁב

It means to remain, settle, sit right down.  There's a sense of permanence about it, of protection and safety.  This makes sense in Psalm 91:1 because it introduces the theme of the entire rest of the psalm.  If you know it at all you probably know it well.  It's a well-memorized part of the Bible; a go-to psalm for those in the midst of great peril.  And there's just generally a lot of comforting security and promises of divine intervention throughout its 16 verses. 

I'm parked here for a bit, in this psalm.  It's become the key guiding Scripture in this year's seasonal plan for ministry development and spiritual formation.  For obvious reasons, given our current transitional housing situation, I felt drawn into a slower deeper meditation and study.  I've been here before, memorized these words in other seasons of my life.  But I'm curious as to where this will take me this time out.

And it brings me back to the cottage and this whole sense of what or where we call 'home.'  To be honest, there is more of a sense of permanence here than in any other home we've lived in.  For 100 years, Ken's family has been summer-dwelling on these rocks, which themselves are reassuringly solid and unchanging.  In the season of upheaval that was June and July, it sure has been comforting to nestle in up here and just rest for a bit.

But even here, it's not forever.  Not even seasonally.  Even if we wanted, we can't really stay into the winter.  As at home as I feel right now, this won't last longer than a short eight weeks out.  And it's not supposed to.  We have the whole deal of the other end of things to look forward to; a nestling into the new build in Kitchener that's coming closer all the time.

So God's invitation to make myself at home in Him is brilliant and compelling.  

Especially right now.