what's in your rooms?

it was nothing out-of-the-ordinary; two stories, halfway painted, rebar shooting off the top like fireworks… just another apartment complex being built in Mexico to accommodate for the exponential city growth. although common to see on our Sunday drives home, this time its frame seemed to jump out at me. or rather, what really jumped out was the emptiness that seemed to wrap around and constrict the building’s framework. and in the quiet seconds it took to notice and take in, God started speaking.

this skeleton of a building is a reflection of our own beings when we have not yet allowed God to touch us. ugly, empty, desolate, unfurnished. without a single touch of home that make us unique and special to those who live within. just another prototype with a short, unsatisfying life. when we let God in to have His way is when we will start to look more like a home, a sanctuary even, and less like just another mold. He designed us to serve a certain purpose and will furnish us accordingly: placing a rug here, a painting over on that wall, the chairs arranged just like this, even making careful decisions over such seemingly trivial things such as cut and design of silverware, amount of plates and coffee mugs, the way the curtains drape, and the strokes of paint placed over the drywall. we are His home, His sanctuary, and each one of us exemplifies His abundance of creative design in a very diverse manner. some of us are lakeside cottages and others are expansive mansions. some of us are small mud huts in Africa with one open room and others are multiple/floored pristine Victorian/era houses in Europe. some are trailer homes that pick up and change location every couple of months, and others are lovely ranches with concrete roots firmly planted into the solid ground beneath it. though all incredibly different both externally and internally, their significance is in the common factor that ties them all together: home. home. home.

within our walls God should feel at home. welcomed. at rest. blessed. comforted. joyful. free.

do our homes, and what is found within them, allow for that?

after speaking over these concepts with a friend, he unknowingly brought light to the truth that many times, the words that God speaks to our heart carry multiple layers that continue to speak to us over the discourse of weeks months and years. there was another layer to this house parable. he told me that many times these furnished homes have rooms with doors shut, even locked, to maintenance and change. so often we don’t want God to come in and see what we ourselves have accumulated in these rooms. we don’t want Him to see that we haven’t been cleaning, that we have allowed certain things to break, that we've pushed things under the carpet or the stains we’ve covered with the paintings that before had been carefully placed. so we cautiously close the door and decide to forget what’s inside. these locked/up rooms and what they contain quickly become stale, rotten, and begin to affect the framework of the house and even work their way into other rooms.

but

what would happen if you pulled that key of the necklace you wear close to your chest and used it to unlock the door you’ve so carefully pulled shut?

what if you asked God to enter it? to evaluate, analyze, and begin to restore and remodel what you’ve been so careful to hide?

He designed you for a purpose. quit being afraid to fulfill it. all of us have accumulated us extra, unneeded, damaging things from life and its circumstances, but throw open your doors and windows to God; draw back the shades and let Him come in and restore you. there is healing you need to find yet within the walls of your home.