When I first saw today’s word, I read it as “house” the
noun, as in the place you live, or “go up to” the Lord’s in the Scriptural
sense. But then as I sat with it, the word started to morph in my mind to the
verb, house, as in to provide a living space for, make room for. This in
turn made me think about the Nativity story, where there is no place to house Joseph
and the very pregnant Mary, as well as all of those in our day who, for whatever
reason are not housed. It’s easy for most of us to not attend to the fact of
the numbers of people for whom homelessness is the norm either temporarily or
permanently. We can move past them in the busyness of our lives and not even
see them. But in Advent we are asked to slow down, to see things as they are,
and when the state of things is not as it should be, we are commended to repent,
to stop, to turn and go another way. While perhaps we can’t literally provide
space for someone, what is our part in making a way for there to be a place, a
home to house even a small percentage of those who lack adequate, safe and affordable
housing?
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