My life as a homebody

My past experiences of winter break always start off with lofty ambitions of productivity. I think of the weeks of free time and decide—yes, I will start projects! Finish them! Run everyday! Read through my entire library whilst visiting everybody that I know!

The reality? Sleep in until 11AM or later, mope around the house until dinner, repeat.

This time around, though I definitely didn’t complete an entire to-do list or schedule, I feel like I rested well, and got a healthy dose of Southern California before I leave left for the East again.

Noteworthy moments (in random order):

1. Waking up at 9AM, 10AM, and indiscriminately later…and realizing that no matter how late I wake up, and how horrible I feel about it, the Lord still wants me to touch Him and call on His name.
2. Stepping into the realm of domesticity. I cooked! I cleaned! I sewed! (By cooking, I mean baking an apple pie and a failed apple crisp.)
   

   butterific

   (And by sewing, I mean this dinky little pocket that took a painstaking amount of hours to complete. I did a victory dance when I finished.) 

   3. Having a couple friends from Boston stay over at my place for the winter training. How good it is for sisters to dwell together in unity!

   4. Plinking out various hymns and learning Downton Abbey’s theme song. (I’ve clearly picked my poison for the semester…) on the piano. Playing my guitar in the mornings as long as I wanted to.

   

   (in)Complete with 5 strings

   5. For the first time, reviewing a couple messages from the Psalms training. Favorite portion thus far:  “If we love God, humble ourselves, and regard the law as His living word through which we contact Him and abide in Him, the law will become a channel through which the divine life and substance are conveyed to us for our supply and nourishment; being infused with God’s substance through the law as God’s word, we will become one with God in life, nature, and expression and will spontaneously live a life that expresses God and corresponds to His law.”(Crystallization Outline, Message 8)

   6. Using beginner Pilates workout videos to help regulate my breathing.

   7. Cleaning out my closet that was chock full of clothes and toys from my toddler years. Now I can walk into it! With both feet!

   8. Realizing several times, as I always do when I come home under direct parental control, that I, Diana, cannot live the Christian life. Only Christ can. By His mercy, may this realization return again and again.

There’s also a comfort in knowing, when I look back at the time I’ve spent at home, that through the mountains and valleys, the times of extreme frustration and immense joy, the Lord’s grace has always been quietly supplying me through.

This coming spring semester will bring lots of snow, six Jane Austen novels, a number of statistic problem sets, too many Chinese characters, 19 home meetings, and hopefully, more praising of the Lord for what He gives, what He does, what He is, and simply, that He is.

         ”We have a Father,
            Whose heart is full of love toward us. 
            His heart is so rich, 
            And His love is so unlimited.
            Even when we sin,
            We can always go back to Him.
           This is our Father’s great love toward us.”

He seemed to say:  You have a Father in the heavens. I’ve done everything to get you. I’m bringing you into glory. Look at the multitude of brothers and sisters you have around you. You are my daughter, and I love you. 

We love because He first loved us. Amazing, blessed fact.

“Beautiful in elevation, The joy of the whole earth, Is Mount Zion, the sides of the north, The city of the great King.” Psa. 48:1

Fair enough, I thought. God’s city is beautiful in elevation. Right.

But then, I got to Psalms 50:2.

“Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.”

Wow. What in the world could possibly be the perfection of beauty? Could we even fathom, point to something on Earth today that’s the perfection of beauty? I suppose we could point to the great wonders of Nature, like the Grand Canyon. Maybe the changing leaves of fall. We could think of celebrated artworks, famous supermodels or impressive city skylines. All of these hold a definition of beauty in their own right, but don’t quite grasp per-fec-tion.

Fall foliage stays for but a time, and eventually shrivels into dead leaves. One massive earthquake could change the entire Canyon. Art work is subjective, skylines are subject to natural disasters, and supermodels…well, they get old.

But Zion is all together the eternal work of God. Zion is the body of overcomers, the believers in the church who are matured in His life.

And though I feel like I’m only touching a teeny bit of the richness of these verses, I realized that there is beauty in God’s transforming work. That in such a dark background, in which we, children of wrath, walked according to the age of this world, dead in our offenses, and alienated from the wealth of Israel, even enemies, have been made alive with Christ! We have been raised up together with Him, and seated with Him in the heavenlies! (Eph.2-3)  And now, He is making us into precious stones for His building. From enemies to His co-kings! From strangers, to His Bride, His counterpart!

Amen, and amen, hallelujah!

Only the Lord could take something so ugly and make it into the perfection of beauty. In fact, He is the most Beautiful One in the whole universe.

And though we have pretty things to look at today…

It’s only a shadow of what’s to come.