If we have accepted the Lord as our savior God says that we belong to Him.  A synonym for belong is ‘to have a home, to have a rightful place’ and the origin of the word belong comes from ‘to reach’.  God reaches out to us and Jesus says “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.  My father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him”.  (John 14:23)

It is God and the person who lives in a house that makes it a home and I love the way CS Lewis describes the way God changes our ‘house’ because He wants to make it a fit place for Him to call home!

Imagine yourself as a living house.  God comes in to rebuild that house.  At first, perhaps you can understand what He is doing.  He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised.  But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense.  What on earth is  He up to?  The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards.  You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage;  but He is building a palace.  He intends to come and live in it Himself”.

I love the words that Ruth Bell Graham (wife of Billy Graham) asked to have inscribed on her tombstone:

“End of construction – Thank you for your patience”