I was a little surprised the other day when someone commented that I had a great attitude about my house being flooded while I was on vacation. I wasn't sure how to respond, but I guess the person was complementing me. Uh, thanks? Trust me, I wasn't exactly excited about being displaced from my house for 7 days and for the fact that there were thousands of dollars of damage to my property. But it is just stuff. I know STUFF isn't a proper word, but it seems to be an appropriate definition of what was damaged--worldly possessions that can be replaced and would probably be thrown out sometime in the next 100 years anyway.
During the first year of our marriage, my husband and I had to evacuate Hurricane Rita (the large Hurricane that followed Katrina and was expected to hit Texas hard right along the Brazos River where we lived.) That evacuation taught me a few things: 1) don't get too attached to your possessions because you can lose them in an instant regardless of the precautions you take, and 2) don't buy a house in a flood zone. Well, I didn't buy a house in a flood zone, but now that I've experienced flood-like conditions, I'm glad that I took lesson 1 seriously. I'm not that attached to possessions. I'm not super sentimental. And I will gladly throw something away if it is in the way and unnecessary.
Because I'm not attached to my stuff, the last 2 weeks haven't been as painful as they could have been. Instead, I think the hardest thing about the past few weeks was not knowing whether we could come home. I knew a home existed, but the anticipation of returning home was killing us. We just wanted to be in our own place where we felt we belonged.
Finally, last Thursday, we slept in our own bed and were able to enjoy being home. It was quite possibly the best night's sleep I have had in months. Being home was amazing--even with stains in the carpet and holes in the cabinets that have yet to be repaired! Just being home was enough to make me happy.
The entire experience made me wonder how amazing it will feel to be at home in heaven someday with the Lord. Last week, the joy of being home was not quite perfect due to the amount of cleaning and work we had to do around our house. But when I get to heaven, I know that Jesus has already prepared a place for me there. It's perfect and it's my eternal home. It's a place where I can experience perfect peace and contentment. Isn't it exciting to think about our future home with Jesus? Just thinking about it makes me smile and say "there's no place like home."
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