The house under construction next door is complete and people are moving in.  I see appliances, furniture and clothes carried up as they begin to settle into a new house, a new location, and a new debt.  I think of the houses in which I’ve lived—the one in which I was raised, where I lived as a young married woman, where we raised our son, and where I live now on the island.  Each of these houses has a story to tell, and each represents a stage in my own life.  I think too of God’s promise that He has prepared a home for me in Heaven, and that what He tells me is the truth.  I can’t earn the money to buy this Heavenly mansion, nor can I do enough “good deeds” to merit it.  This mansion is mine only as an act of grace and love.  Sometimes when I focus too much on this world, I forget that future house bearing my name.  Forgive me, Father, and help me live a life in accordance with your plan; welcome me when the time is right into my eternal dwelling. Amen.