Five Minute Friday: Welcome

Somehow I am managing to squeak in my 5 minutes in the midst of crazy. Join me and all the 5 minute crazies in our write-like-mad for 5 minute exercise. No editing.  No second guessing. Drop by Lisa Jo's place and take a look at this week's post!

Topic: Welcome
GO!

If wood paneling could speak it would probably say "free me from this hideousness" because well it can make a cave like rental house seem like well...a cave like rental house. I've hidden behind ugly wallpaper and ancient linoleum. I've refused to hang pictures on what isn't mine. This untethered life can downright ache at times. It can make you feel unwelcome in your own makeshift home.

Welcome is a posture of the heart. 

I want to live roof off and walls down. I don't want what stands in between me and you to be whether or not my home is good enough. Because I know the real question behind that is, "Am I good enough?" If I can't welcome you into my home then why would I welcome you into my life?

My dirt.
My messiness.

When we lived across the ocean on West African shores we ate pineapple. The juiciest you could imagine. Our friends would give them to us and we would eat them and smile at their generosity. They would invite us into their homes. Small, cramped, dirty and we would smile and pull chairs close to rickety tables. They knew how to welcome. How to spread the arms wide and the heart wider and give what they have. It was all from God.

Rental house or not. It doesn't belong to us anyway. It is all gift. It is all from God.

Welcome to my mess. Don't mind the wood paneling.

STOP!