Grace Notes - A moving experience

We have not moved house as often as some families, but more often than we would like. Having started off as a married couple in a one-bedroom attic flat, we now find ourselves as a family of five in a four-bedroom detached house. In the intervening 16 years we have lived in a rented house, a manse, a housing association property and a house that we owned. On average we have moved every four years. The longest we have stayed in one property is eight years. In 1998, 1999 and 2000 our Christmases were spent living at three different addresses consecutively.

Providence

The challenge for an editor of Grace Magazine – insofar as he has any control over events – is so to arrange things that the process of getting the magazine ready each month is not interrupted. The regular appearance of ‘Grace’, as many will realise, is not something that should be taken for granted. The various editors have continued their work through a range of potential obstacles including pastoral crises, computer breakdown, ill health, the birth of a child etc. as well as moving house.

Moving house is reckoned to be high on the list of stress factors. Certainly the system of buying and selling houses in England and Wales leads to some fraught moments. This is our first move where we have had to move out of the old house and into the new one on the same day.

In this case the Lord worked everything together so that the week of the move was a ‘fallow’ week in the magazine’s monthly cycle. Without his over-ruling 2003 might well have had one less issue than normal!

Possessions

While moving house you are made to think about what things you really need. Some time ago we were going to have a rule that anything we hadn’t used for three years or more wasn’t worth keeping and should be disposed of. But this was soon dropped when we realised that we had quite a few things which are precious though we hadn’t even looked at them for years, let alone used them.

An old set of spanners in a wooden box almost got left behind in our recent move. My father quietly gave them to me a few years ago. He had had them all through his years as a printer, until more sophisticated machines rendered them obsolete. I am unlikely ever to use them but would never dream of parting with them.

Some items of furniture are significant for family reasons. There is the table used by Gill’s grandmother and the bureau made by her grandfather in the Rhondda during the Depression of the 1920s. Other items are precious by their association and some are reminders of people’s kindness to us in difficult times.

All our things more than filled one large removal lorry. My books had already been packed up and stored at three different locations, pending the garage at the new house being converted into a study. I might soon begin to share Paul’s concern about his books and parchments miles away! (2 Timothy 4:13). As far as we know nothing has been lost in transit. One filing cabinet however - the one containing Grace magazine files - arrived at the new house locked without the key! This was a relatively minor mishap compared to our previous move when a black bag containing several prized footballs was mistakenly left behind in Hemel Hempstead!

Perfect?

Home ownership has increased massively in this country in recent years. The UK has the largest proportion of homeowners of any major European country. Of course any property is flawed, even a brand new one. There’s always something more to do. If it’s not essential maintenance then a new occupier’s taste will require something to be changed.

But the situation today is out of hand. The cult of the home has come to take its place in the pantheon of modern Britain. It has millions of devotees, made to feel dissatisfied, or just bored, with the current look of their interiors and encouraged to strive for the perfect home. Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and Linda Barker are the high priest and priestess. Hours of television programming foster this new religion. We need to be on our guard. Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses (Luke 12:15).

Sadly, although the look of our homes may be improving, the people who live in them are less happy. More and more houses are being built and planned, especially in the south east of England. But more and more households these days consist of a single occupier. Amongst other things this is an indicator of marital and family breakdown.

Pilgrimage

Moving house highlights the temporary character of life on the earth. But even in settled circumstances the believer is merely passing through this world, a sojourner. He remains in the tent of fleshly existence all his days until he arrives at his solid habitation in heaven, prepared by the Lord Jesus himself. One day he will take possession of that which is reserved for him, … a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2 Corinthians 5:1).

As James Montgomery puts it:

‘Here in the body pent,
Absent from him I roam,
Yet nightly pitch my moving tent
A day’s march nearer home.’

Praise

We thank God for a place to live. This is not something that any of us should take for granted. We are very thankful for this particular house, seeing as we can the Lord’s hand in its provision.

‘Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise him all creatures here below
Praise him above ye heavenly host:
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost!’