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Legacy is something that a person leaves behind to be remembered by. Legacies are pathways that guide people in decisions with what to do or what not to do. The mark one leaves.
One of the legacies I will leave to my family is Community by Rocking Chair. At any hour of a summer’s day, you will find one or many swaying, rocking, sipping, eating, reading, but gathering together for friendship belonging to all who rock. I planned it this way. When you plan a place in your home where people can gather round one another, there will be relationship. And so, we have a “rocking” community developed over many years.
What legacies are. you leaving? How are you living rhythms of life that bring a legacy of love, beauty, community, hope, peace of mind?
In the beginning, God created
The past months have been filled with death, despair, difficulty, disharmony—the ugly parts of life in a fallen world— and it takes a toll on our spirit. And in the midst of it, our children are surrounded by so much darkness—and so are we. We are human beings with limitations and real bodies that need health mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically. In a time of crisis, we are subject to depletion and unhealth.
Most of the people I know, including our family, live pretty mundane, simple lives. We desire to help, to heal, to love and encourage, yet our lives are. mostly filled up with meals, dishes, bills, responsibilities and so we can feel helpless or sometimes as though our lives have no meaning or ability to influence or effect what is going on in the greater world.
Yet, when we seek to redeem the normal, daily, mundane by imagining how we might bring grace, hospitality, love, light, beauty, we can actually help cover the darkness and impact of despair with beauty that creates and cultivates new life.
As women, one of the defining qualities intrinsic in being made in God's image, is the divine ability to create, to cultivate, to subdue, and to take all of the raw materials of our lives and to craft them into something beautiful.
When God laid the foundations of the universe, the splendor and magnificence of vibrant color, eye captivating beauty, resilient, melodious sounds, the spontaneous response of the shimmering, sparkling morning stars was to celebrate with heavenly choruses, singing His praises and worth, while the sons of God shouted and celebrated wildly with joy. (Job 38:6-8) What on overwhelming display of vibrant, heart filling celebration of His glory it must have been.
So, when we want to display just a small bit of the divine through the beauty of our home, it must encompass all of the moments of life, because we have ruled over our domains in such a way to have order, rhythms, traditions, anchors in our schedule that provide for this divine reflection through the ways we have ruled over and subdued in our own domain.
And one of the most profound things we can do is to look around us, at our neighbors, the lonely widow, the single mom, the professional adult who lives alone, the new family, those in our church or school or community or sports team that might feel “rejected” or alone, and we bring them into the beauty we have created.
We build rhythms of bringing others into our realm of beauty and life. We start a book club, a potluck dinner, a tea time gathering group, whatever, and we become those who build relationships right in the places where people want to find life, in our home and in our love.
I love fall the best, I think. Chill air begins to fill the nights so that we must close our windows and snuggle under covers. Warm, simmering, pungent soups bubble on the stove while scents of herb crusted bread waft from the oven. Fireplaces and candles dance with flames, music notes float into our subconscious to please and soothe the rough places of our souls.
I also love early summer in Colorado. Literally thousands of evenings, we have sat on the front porch talking, sipping, eating, making friends, enjoying the sparkle of the aspens fluttering or the companionship that reminded us we were not alone.
The Spirit of home, stands at the doorways to compel those outside to enter into a place of life, comfort, rest, beauty.
But, you say, "My life is already so busy, I don't have time to add one more ideal."
The dilemma, then, is how to weave beauty, color, celebration into an already busy life.
And perhaps putting aside a “busy” activity and entering into the nostalgia of rhythms of life will remind us that we have purpose, love, legacy of Fatih to uphold and to remember in the practiced moments of our days. We invite others into this space and they find the very life, comfort and beauty of the really of the living Christ, through a chilled glass of lemonade or a strong cup of coffee. If we give even a cup, we have given it to Him.
Books Referenced in this Podcast:
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