And you shall remember the whole way

that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness

that He might humble you

testing you to know what was in your heart.....

Deuteronomy 8:2

A dear friend, who remembers every birthday and anniversary, sent a text this morning.  “Wasn’t it ten years ago you moved out of your house?”

I’m shaking with wonder and awe.  Yes.  Ten years.  Ten years of moving around, trying to get well, surviving crisis after crisis.  Ten years of asking where to go next. Ten years of being led in the wilderness.  Ten years of beauty in creation and people. Ten years of God’s faithfulness.  

For ten years i’ve packed my belongings in plastic bags, moving from one place to the other. Last night i celebrated this anniversary with the  purchase of a spacious cloth travel bag.  It is may seem like a little thing to others, but it is significant for me.  I’m moving away from the homeless mentality.  I have a real travel bag.  

Today i am packing to visit my eighty-eight year old mother in Maryland.  A mattress from the travel trailer is positioned in the back of my SUV.  One night i plan to sleep in the Ford in the driveway of my brother’s house.  The second night the plan is to set up my one-person tent on the deck of my sister’s home. I can be and love to be in their homes.  However for a night's sleep, i feel better in fresh air.

Today i baked free range chicken and wild caught orange roughy, and cooked organic cabbage. I’ll probably purchase some organic greens on the road.

Good air. Good sleep. Good food.  These are all essentials for healing.  Take out one from the equation and i am not able to function well.

Six months ago we moved from the travel trailer into a mold free brand new apartment.  The builder seemed as conscious of mold prevention as we are.  It is a gift of space.  It is a sanctuary. We have a washer and dryer!  No more doing laundry by hand.  We have a full size fridge. No more going to get groceries almost daily.  We even have two baths with a bathtub in each!  My walk-in closet has more floor space than the travel trailers we lived in for seven years.

We are looking forward to the next step.  After finding a lot with good air, away from high powered electrical lines, and a few other essentials, hopefully we’ll build a small cement dwelling.  There will be no dry wall and probably no wood.

I still feel like a sojourner even though i’ve tried to get beyond my homeless sojourner mentality.  However, that precisely is what God, our eternal Home wants us to embrace.  In this life, we are sojourners - even if we take trips with classy travel bags.

The Lord watches over the sojourners

Psalm 146:9