Breaking through. Making room.
The prospect of ‘retirement’ is now only just round the corner and I am planning for my new home – among other things. Down-sizing from a four bed-roomed Vicarage to a small terraced house is one of the challenges! How will I fit in – not just in physical terms but also how will I fit in to this new lifestyle with all its changes?
A couple of years ago my family encouraged me to think about extending upwards into the roof with a loft-conversion as extending ‘out’ wasn’t possible. This week the builders have moved in and have broken through walls and ceilings into spaces that have not seen the light of day for 150 years! A new staircase has appeared that gives us access into a beautiful new roof space. There, large new windows allow light in and I will be able to sit at my desk with a wonderful view across fields that I have never had before, even from upstairs.
It has made me think about the unused ‘spaces’ in my life. Somehow I feel God is calling me to ‘extend upwards’ beyond the other very happy and familiar spaces that I have been ‘living in’. There is a space that has been waiting for the right time for me to inhabit and that time is coming. ‘Breaking through’, ‘making room’ are the words that come to mind often.
Between now and the end of January is a time of preparation for me in more ways than one and I expect it might be for you as well. In just over a week’s time we enter the wonderful season of Advent to prepare us for Christmas. I remember some years ago there was a Christmas slogan that said, ‘Make room for Christ this Christmas.’ Perhaps there is a new and unfamiliar space for each one of us to ‘break into’ and discover for the first time – a space that will surprise and delight us beyond our familiar traditions of Christmas – and there we can welcome the Christ Child in our lives for the first time. Let’s ask God where in our lives that might be!
Have a very happy and peaceful Christmas.
With my love and prayers,
Di
The prospect of ‘retirement’ is now only just round the corner and I am planning for my new home – among other things. Down-sizing from a four bed-roomed Vicarage to a small terraced house is one of the challenges! How will I fit in – not just in physical terms but also how will I fit in to this new lifestyle with all its changes?
A couple of years ago my family encouraged me to think about extending upwards into the roof with a loft-conversion as extending ‘out’ wasn’t possible. This week the builders have moved in and have broken through walls and ceilings into spaces that have not seen the light of day for 150 years! A new staircase has appeared that gives us access into a beautiful new roof space. There, large new windows allow light in and I will be able to sit at my desk with a wonderful view across fields that I have never had before, even from upstairs.
It has made me think about the unused ‘spaces’ in my life. Somehow I feel God is calling me to ‘extend upwards’ beyond the other very happy and familiar spaces that I have been ‘living in’. There is a space that has been waiting for the right time for me to inhabit and that time is coming. ‘Breaking through’, ‘making room’ are the words that come to mind often.
Between now and the end of January is a time of preparation for me in more ways than one and I expect it might be for you as well. In just over a week’s time we enter the wonderful season of Advent to prepare us for Christmas. I remember some years ago there was a Christmas slogan that said, ‘Make room for Christ this Christmas.’ Perhaps there is a new and unfamiliar space for each one of us to ‘break into’ and discover for the first time – a space that will surprise and delight us beyond our familiar traditions of Christmas – and there we can welcome the Christ Child in our lives for the first time. Let’s ask God where in our lives that might be!
Have a very happy and peaceful Christmas.
With my love and prayers,
Di
