Yesterday, on our official closing date, our realtor called. "I’ve got your keys!" she said. This is the first house I’ve ever owned and I’ll be 53 when I start living in it. I realize I’ve never done anything the usual way. Steve and I have lived in the house we’re renting now for over six years. Before that, neither of us had lived anywhere, as adults, for more than five years. For a couple of nomads, we are now being planted and it’s thrilling to think about sinking down some roots.

I’ve been meditating on Jeremiah 32:41 lately. “I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all My heart and soul.” One of my favorite phrases in the whole Bible is found in the preceding verse: “I will never stop doing good to them.” While that is always true, regardless of our circumstances, Steve and I are now living in a season where we are experiencing the truth of that verse.

Since the house became ours four months before we’ll get to live in it, I’ll be able to put some of my free flights (and my time off work) to good use. While Steve will keep plugging away at his job, I’ll make a few trips to our new house on the other side of the country. The first trip will be to strip wallpaper and paint. The second will be to meet the moving truck and arrange our things. After our belongings go, we’ll move next door (same address and telephone) into a furnished studio apartment for our final two months in California. August and September will be filled with hard, stressful work but it’ll be smooth sailing when Steve’s last day of work comes in November. We’ll just get in the car and drive across country to our already moved-in house. And start being planted.