Forty-three
years ago, this month, Dick and I moved into our first parsonage. It was a
memorable occasion . . .
“Oh
no!” I groaned as yet another window pane popped out and fell two stories to
the ground, splintering into a million pieces of ancient glass. I sat down on
the floor and cradled my head in my hands. Tears spilled down my cheeks. I just can’t do this.
Brand
new to pastoral ministry, we were unprepared for replacing 27 broken window
panes, catching 14 mice in a week, and pulling only tattered shreds of the curtains
from the washer. I never dreamed floor registers could be so hot they waffled the
soles of your shoes! And who, besides Moses and Pharaoh, would have envisioned flies
so numerous they had to be vacuumed from the bedroom windows each day?
Like
the glass plummeting from the second floor, my visions of a cozy home with crisp
white curtains fluttering at the sparkling windows shattered right before my
eyes. “Can we please just call the moving company and tell them not to unpack
our stuff?” I pleaded with Dick.
“Pam,
you know we can’t do that,” Dick answered. “The house goes with the job. We just
have to make the best of it.”
And
we did! Over the years that followed, Dick and I learned firsthand that the
words of Helen Rowland ring true: “Home is any four walls that enclose the
right person.”
This
week Dick and I celebrate 45 years of marriage. In each of the 13 moves we have
made during that time, what morphs glass, brick, mortar and wood into a “home”
is the presence of each other and the life we share with family and friends
within those walls.
At
our first parsonage, where I had despondently prepared for the movers to arrive
with our belongings, our son took his first steps, sprouted his first tooth,
and learned to sign “More candy, please,” from the hands of a young man who was
deaf. Best of all, we forged the foundations of our faith during weekly
discussions of spiritual beliefs with other believers who gathered in our home
to study scriptures.
Be encouraged!
Pam
©2019 Pamela D. Williams
Comments welcome via Facebook
or email (writepam71@gmail.com).
