salt the planet

In preparing for our numerous open houses over the Christmas Holiday, my wife and I had much work to do since we had just bought our first house.

As we prepared for the open house, we straightened each room, moved boxes out of the way into the attic and basement, vaccuumed, dusted, mopped, and generally cleaned the more traversed areas.

And yet, we did so much more than that. Preparing for visitors required filling the house as well. My wife cooked some amazing dishes and decorated each room with Christmas cheer (I especially loved our Star Wars tree with the Yoda tree topper)! She also lit candles and created a potpourri mix to cook on the stove, which filled the every portion of every room with fragrant aromas.

Filling our house took all these things: cleaning, straightening, reorganizing, filling the table with food, adorning each room with beautiful decorations, lighting candles for fragrant aromas wafting through the air.

We had created a space for people to enter and know we are honored by their presence.

These images remind me of implications I have learned from Matt. 12:43-45/Luke 11:24-26. The primary implication, which can be especially seen in Matthew's account, is that the house was empty as the evil-spirit returned. It was not full, only swept and put in order. I have discovered the metaphor of my life as a house to be helpful in understanding how I often treat Jesus, who already dwells here. The struggle comes, for me, when I do not make space for Him to fill me completely.

He works to clean, straighten, reorganize, and fill my house with his food, his decor, his fragrant aroma, and yet I make things dirty, hide the overflowing boxes of junk, and would rather find beauty and satisfaction beyond what he offers.

I must make space for Him to let him know I am honored by his presence. I must slow down to enjoy the cleaning, straightening, and reorganizing of my life as well as its fullnes of fragrant aromas, delicious morsels of satisfying food, and the ways he adornes me with beauty.


This is a song that put into words the metaphor upon which I have meditated on many occasions.

Take me, make me
All You want me to be
That's all I'm asking, all I'm asking

Welcome to this heart of mine
I've buried under prideful vines
Grown to hide the mess I've made
Inside of me, come decorate, Lord

Open up the creaking door
And walk upon the dusty floor
Scrape away the guilty stains
Until no sin or shame remain

Spread Your love upon the walls
And occupy the empty halls
Until the man I am has faded
No more doors are barricaded

Chorus:
Come inside this
Heart of mine it's
Not my own
Make it home
Come and take this
Heart and make it
All Your own
Welcome home

Take a seat, pull up a chair
Forgive me for the disrepair
And the souvenirs from floor to ceiling
Gathered on my search for meaning

Every closet's filled with clutter
Messes yet to be discovered
I'm overwhelmed, I understand
I can't make this place all that You can
(Chorus)

I took the space that You placed in me
Redecorated in shades of greed
And I made sure every door stayed locked
Every window blocked, and still You knocked

Take me, make me
All You want me to be
That's all I'm asking, all I'm asking

And so, my question to you is, what metaphors/verses/images do you use to make space for Him?