Home away from home

"Come in, O blessed of the Lord!

For I have prepared the house"

Genesis 24:31

I went on retreat last month with my Bible study group.  We go every year, just for the weekend, and have a wonderful combination of spiritual time and fun time.  There's just nothing like eating together (breaking bread, as it were) for good conversation, and finding out more about each other.   And there's nothing like spending a weekend away, for being able to spend some quiet time with God. 

I'm fortunate to live in an area where we can get to the mountains, or to the beach, with just an hour or so of driving.  So over the years I've gone to several beautiful locations on retreat ~ and most of them have been rewarding and pleasant enough that we've gone back more than once. 

But this year we went someplace new.  Mostly we've gone to retreat locations or hotels, but this year we went to the vacation home of a friend of mine. 

I met this friend the year I began Bible study, 12 years ago.  She was actually my teacher that year ~ and the three years after that.  After that she left that position to serve in another capacity within the study, where she's been since that. 

Her husband is involved, too, in the men's class, and has been for years.  And so, about a year and a half ago, when they decided to purchase a vacation home for their family, they were also thinking of other uses for the home.  They were thinking about the men's class, and our women's class, and the several other classes in the county that could use their home for a retreat location. 

Because of that, they bought a home far bigger than their family needed.  And it's beautiful.  Comfortable, simple but thoughtfully-decorated rooms ~ enough sleeping space for 26.  Places to be alone for some quiet time, and places to eat, chat, and play board games or watch a movie if a group wants to do that.  There's a game room and a good-size kitchen, four bathrooms, and a good amount of parking space in the driveway. 

It was a lovely place to spend the weekend, and I would have been much more reluctant to leave if I hadn't been going home to my sweet family.  And while I was there, I kept thinking over and over again how incredibly thoughtful and generous is this lovely couple.  I'm just in awe of people who can be so completely thoughtful of others.  Yes, they bought themselves a vacation home, but if that had been their only goal, they could have just done that.

How wonderful it is when people think of others.  This couple loves Christ by loving others, and I am just one of many who has been blessed by it.

I do not have ~ and I may never have, the wherewithal to bless others like that.  But I'm encouraged and reminded that the little I can offer the Lord will be magnified by Him, to do more than I can imagine for others.

~ "Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do

for the brethren and for strangers,

who have borne witness of your love before the church.

If you send them forward on their journey

in a manner worthy of God, you do well" ~

3 John 1:5-6