An old church tradition during Epiphany is a practice called Chalking the Doors. With chalk, mark your lintel and doorposts, saying a blessing over the home- a tangible reminder that Christ dwells with us wherever we are, and that our home is a place of radical welcome, an outpost of His kingdom.
One of the valuable messages at the heart of the gospel centers on community. Being committed to people and our places means that we move toward people, instead of away from them. It’s hard to see that reality sometimes as someone who only plants her feet in one place for 2-3 years.
When we have to pack up and move to the next duty station, my heart focuses on the ending of relationships in my current place. When I experience pain, my instinct is to draw away, not toward.
These words from Shepherd of Hermas, second-century writings from the early church resonate:
“You know that you who are God’s servants are living in a foreign country, for your own city-state is far away from this City-state. Knowing, then, which one is to be your own City-state, why do you acquire fields, costly furnishings, buildings, and frail dwellings here? Instead of fields, buy for yourselves people in distress in accordance with your means. It is far, far better to buy this kind of field, property, or building, which is quite different and which you can find again in your own City when you come home. This ‘extravagance’ is beautiful and holy; it brings no grief and no fear; it brings nothing but joy.”
In just a few short weeks, we will pack all our belongings. They will be put into trucks, loaded onto boats and floated half a world away.
Our hearts will surely feel the grief as we say our goodbyes- a joy and evidence of love that grew during this season of life in Maine. A reminder that we lived sent, embracing all God’s people that walked through our front door.
I also look ahead with hope, at the other end of the rainbow awaiting- a new life to explore, a new opportunity to give our hearts away to new Ohana. When we get keys to our new Hawaiian home, the first thing I will do is roll out the welcome mat. This is the way of the military family- we learn to embrace that we live sent, on mission and ready to use our homes as an outpost for Love.