God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10

Settling in to a new home certainly involves utilities, and furniture, and decorating, and artwork, and well-placed family photographs, and where the dog sleeps, and discovering light switches in the night, and finding out the garbage days, and learning the peculiarities of the thermostat – and more….

But ultimately, knowing you have really moved in comes down to finding your place in the kitchen. Not so much where stuff goes as where we go. So little by little Rebekah and I have been drawn into this expansive and inviting space, gravitating to the natural light, the counter, and to this comfortable table.

In fact, I think it’s my office now.

Sermon preparation:

Today, Saturday, we are both in here. Rebekah is working on tomorrow’s message (away from the distractions of the church office), and I am at long last – after a little more than six years – looking to establish a work rhythm that may possibly yield a book, or two, this coming year.

I plan to photograph the house – including the kitchen – in more detail once we are more completely settled in. But for now I am pretty much living in here….

Who knows, maybe the first book will something like, “Food For Thought: notes from the Tarboro kitchen”?

“Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted” (Psalm 127:1a).