Thoughts for the Day

God’s Blessings on the Home

Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labour in vain.
Unless the Lord guards the city,
the guard keeps watch in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives sleep to his beloved.

Sons are indeed a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the sons of one’s youth.
Happy is the man who has
his quiver full of them.
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

As children, my brother and sister and I used to love being taken into nearby woods by our mother, Olive. She would sit on a log and knit while we rampaged the nearby forest in Germany. Then some years later we were allowed free-rein of the woods behind our isolated house in Hampshire. It was our great delight to build 'houses' out of anything we could find. I can remember lugging a huge piece of rusting metal that had once been a cooker halfway across the forest. In the early days we made our dens out of fallen branches, the huge fronds from ferns, and old bits of wood and stone that we discovered. As we got older our edifices got larger and more complicated, as we learnt what worked best.

Of course all three of us went on to create real homes, where the rain didn't usually get in and where we were warm and dry, but those memories of being safe and supported by Olive and the twins never left me. Psalm 127 was written in a different time, probably by King Solomon, and was used as a Song of ascent. It's concerned with three of our most important preoccupations, our building, our security and raising a family. It points out that if God isn't involved in the creation of these three things then all will have been in vain. There is no other choice, we follow God's way, or all is pointless.

Today, let us commend our home, our safety, and our family to God and ask His blessing on them.

Lord God,
we commend our home,
our safety,
and our family to You.
We thank You for all that
You have given us,
and ask that when life is difficult
we never forget that You are there
to uphold us.
We ask Your blessing on our home,
and loved ones,
and on all that we do this day.
Amen.