When It's Good
New Home
For when you feel: moving in, new house, first apartment, blessing our home
A gradual canticle of Solomon. Unless the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. Unless the Lord keep the city, he watcheth in vain that keepeth it.
But if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord, you have your choice: choose this day that which pleaseth you, whom you would rather serve, whether the gods which your fathers served in Mesopotamia, or the gods of the Amorrhites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house we will serve thee Lord,
The MinuteHomily
The living room is still empty, and your voice echoes a little when you speak. Boxes wait in the hallway. Before the furniture arrives and tells each room what it's for, the psalmist has a word for this threshold. "Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it." Labor raises walls, but only the Lord builds a home. So do what believers have done at new doorways for generations. Walk the rooms and pray over them, meals of welcome in the kitchen, rest in the bedrooms, peace at the front door. Then stand where the couch will go and say Joshua's old vow out loud: "as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." Let the first thing spoken in this home be its mission.
By the MinuteHomily editors
A prayer for this moment
Lord, build this house into a home. Fill it with peace, welcome, laughter, and Your presence; and let everyone who enters feel that You live here too. Amen.
“Peace to this house, and to all who dwell in it.”
after Luke 10:5
Hymns for this moment
“Ubi Caritas” · Taizé
“Bless This House” · Helen Taylor & May Brahe
One small step
Before decorating, walk each room and pray one sentence over its purpose.
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