Chambers are defined as private, even secret. We’ve heard of a judge’s chambers where undisclosed conversations take place. I would imagine every human heart has a hidden place within. Humans may not see that corner, but according to I Samuel 16:7, God looks at the heart.
We built our home on the acreage, with our own hands, one framed-in floor, and then one room at a time, mostly on weekends. We moved into the far-from-finished house a year and a half after the basement was dug because thieves hit the construction site several times. Three children played and grew in our basement for five years while we finished the rooms above ground. The wood-burning Franklin stove warded off the chill of concrete walls.
The living room is often a first impression inside most front doors, put on display. That front door is often a welcome smiling face, visible for show. But there are closets and closed doors beyond a front entry way; and deep compartments within our hearts.
What do we keep beyond a closed door? Secrets, or clutter, something to keep hidden from view.
Clutter, now there’s a word. Because I fell in love with the love story of Rhett and Scarlett at age 13, I have a vast GWTW collection. It’s mixed in with the thousand plus novels on eight bookcases. My assortment of plates, music boxes, figurines, a Scarlett doll and several ensembles, may be viewed as clutter to some visitors to my study. But that particular montage has a special place in my heart.
When it comes to clutter in my home, I don’t like others to see it. Sometimes I have to clear the clutter from my heart as well. Similar to the clutter in my study, a heart can hold on to stuff. Such things as past sins, past grievances, guilt, any ugliness we’ve never let go of, can place a layer of dust over the way we see people and situations today.
Dust, that dirty word, must have come from my subconscious, since the notion of spring cleaning is on many minds. We live in our home, so it’s not picture perfect. But I would like to think that when God searches my heart, He sees a clean one.
Looking at the rooms in our physical home after all these years, I now picture what to keep as we downsize. The arteries may be clogged with the accumulation of over 40 years, but the pulse of this home is strong. The pulse of my heart is renewed daily by the words given to us in God’s love letter. He knows my heart better than I know the rooms, the chambers, of my home.
First-time visitors have commented on the sense of love in our home, that the vibes were good. That feeling may come from the Bibles, books, and the crosses in most of the rooms, but I like to think that God is the soul of our home. He is the Spirit within our hearts, where He continues to breathe new life throughout our abode.
Abode. Another great word. Abode is a place where one resides. Abide means to dwell, to remain, have one’s abode. Knowing where I will abide forever comes from the promise Jesus made in John 14:2. “I go to prepare a house for you.” Now, those are some rooms to write beautiful, cleansing, exposed words about.