By wisdom a house is built;
    by understanding it is established.
 By knowledge rooms are filled
    with all precious and pleasant wealth. Proverbs 24:3-4

Another day another pile of boxes packed. Also, I successfully checked off a whole long list of various details such as insurance and utility hookups and getting all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed for the leasing office at our daughter Naomi’s apartment.

All in all a good day that started off with a very cold near-freezing walk around the neighborhood before doing my rounds of box-packing, driving to the hardware store (and the back again because of a mess-up), taking a tour of the new apartment building, visiting Joe and Cheryl (Rebekah’s brother Joe), taking Naomi to Target for a cart-load of move-in necessities, dinner at Outback and then an evening full with more boxing up of things and other details.

The apartment complex turns out to be extremely nice. I have to admit that I was surprised at the elegance, the quality and the level of amenities. She has every opportunity to make a very nice home there. We are pleased.

I love the implications of the scripture I quoted from the Book of Proverbs. This is how a simple apartment building can become a real home. This is how any four walls, no matter how grand or how humble, can be a gracious habitation: Wisdom, understanding and then knowledge.

Our daughter has all the tools. She is extremely smart, she owns understanding that has been forged in the crucible of experience, and now the opportunity is all hers for more knowledge – and wisdom – every single day.

Or, as the Amplified Version of the Bible articulates this scripture from Proverbs, “by understanding [this new home] is established on a sound and good foundation, and by knowledge its rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.”

But most of all I love and hold tight to this thought about establishing a home that Jesus expressed in John’s Gospel. “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23).

That’s Jesus inviting himself – and the entire Godhead – to take up residence!

“We (that’s God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit) will make our home with them.” God is ready to join in with this new direction in life, to sign on as a co-lessee, and actually make a home with Naomi!

What an amazing promise! I can only imagine the possibilities! – DEREK