Being flatmates with God!

Lily Cathcart March 24, 2025 3 4

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Psalm 23: 5-6 (NRSVA)

5 

You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.

6 

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
    my whole life long.

Have you ever shared a house or a flat with someone? I have, and I confess that I was not very good at it. I forgot things, I left things a little too long only to find someone else had done it instead. In short I was probably a bit annoying.

It took living and serving in an intentional community to start teaching me how to be a good housemate, and I’m sure I still have a lot to learn. Which leads me to wonder what God would think of having me for a housemate.

‘I shall dwell in the house of the Lord’ says Psalm 23. And later in John 14 Jesus says ‘In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?’ The Godly equivalent of, ‘Come kip at mine, Dad won’t mind he loves you guys.’

Because if we were in any doubt about how God would feel when we rocked up looking for a room, a dwelling space, a place to belong — at last and forever — all we need to do is look at Jesus’s behaviour. From this we know we will be welcomed with open arms. There will be a table prepared for us, there will be a space ready for us and I mean really us. Not just the side of us we show hoping to be liked, but ‘all’ of us, our quirks and loves and annoying habits. And there we can belong.

Prayer:

Dear God of welcome

Thank you that you love us completely

Thank you that you sent this message to us in so many ways

Help us to spend our time on earth welcoming others

and welcoming ourselves to relax into a feeling of belonging.

Amen