House Guest

How comfortable are we?

Now therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider how you have fared. You have sown much, and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and you that earn wages earn wages to put them into a bag with holes. Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider how you have fared. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored, says the LORD. - Haggai 1:5-8

Today's Old Testament reading turns our attention to ourselves and how we live, comparing our homes to the House of God.

We can read this passage literally, placing it in its time, convinced it is not about us at all.  Or we can dig a little deeper and see if there can be a meaning for us today.

If we think of God's House as a building, we see this as a call to build and maintain a house of worship, but what if we look beyond the physical home and consider the spiritual home we prepare inside ourselves for God?

How well constructed it that home?

Have we taken the time to look for the best materials available to build a home for God in our souls?

Look at how we prepare our homes for the arrival of a guest.  We clean up.  We set aside a room for them, making space in the drawers and closets for their clothes, clearing off the counters and putting fresh towels in the bathroom.

We do the work of preparation without thinking of it as work, because we are overjoyed to have our friend come and stay with us, if only for a while.

So it should be when we anticipate the coming of our Lord.

This Advent we should take the time to work on preparing room for God in our lives.

It may mean canceling some other plans, or blocking out time on our busy calendars for nothing else.

Or perhaps we can make room for God by getting out there, seeking ways to help or comfort others who have less than we have.

All of this world can be a welcoming home for God if we all work together to make it so.  But it is work.  It takes determination and time.  It means focusing on Him and not on us.

Can we do that?

I'm an eternal optimist, so I say yes.  But I know that if we don't take the time now, we will regret it later.  Not that we will be punished, but that we will have missed the joy of living with God as our house guest.

More to come...