Remodel

By Pastor Paul Gauche

Today’s Word: ‘REMODEL‘ as in… when our hearts get remodeled, there’s so much more room for gratitude!

We have a house guest with us these days. And only during the day. We’re in the midst of a small “up-do” on a couple of small spaces in our home and we’ve got a new friend doing some remodeling; turning old space into new space. Here’s what I’m learning: sometimes when people remodel their homes, much more than their home gets transformed!

This past weekend – Sunday afternoon into Monday evening, our house was full of hoopla and hilarity: a sleepover with – say it with me now – “The Hoonies.” We were on our way outside to play in the snow because there’s no such thing as ‘bad weather,’ just bad clothing, when our remodeler arrived. It was a fascinating few moments as we welcomed him into our home and we traded introductions all around.

“Ruby Grace, Ryann and Emily, this is our new friend! He’s doing some work in our home and he’s going to be here with us all day!”

The three girls said “hello.”

“Hello girls”he said. And that’s when they heard it: an accent… a Russian accent! When he said “hello girls,” the house was instantly filled with verbal sunlight, acoustic color, and poetry! Nancy Lee asked if our friend would mind sharing a phrase or two of the Russian language.  She wanted our granddaughters to hear the beauty of another language.

So did I.

And then, without skipping a beat, he asked if he could pray for us.

Okay, let’s pause right there. As I often do, I’ll ask you to just go back and reread that last sentence. Really. Go ahead. I’ll wait for you here.

“Can I pray for you?” he asked.

“Absolutely!” I said.

And once more, the house was filled with the most remarkable, artistic, lyrical, mouth-full-of-beautiful-sounds that I’ve heard in a long time. I had my eyes closed, but I’m sure everyone was smiling.

When our friend came to the end, he said something that sounded a lot like “Amen!” And we all chimed in with our “Amen.”

Amen! Let it be so!

We were all wondering what he said, of course, so he told us that he was giving thanks for the new day; thanking God for new friends. He asked for safety as he worked and for enjoyment as we played outside. And he asked God to bless our home and the people in it.

In that very moment, I realized that some important remodeling had taken place inside me. My whole heart had expanded to hold a lot more gratitude for a moment like that, and for a new friend like this.

#100days50words

Paul Gauche is the Pastor of Life Transitions at Prince of Peace. His posts are part of his #100days50works project, where be blogs about a different word each day. You can follow his project on Instagram (@pgauche), or on his blog, Thriving Rhythms.