For years, I always dreamed of my little house on the prairie. I loved our home and where we lived, but something deep inside me longed for more outdoors. More real life learning. More nature. I wanted the farm, the woods, the property. The gardens, the chickens…I just longed for it all.
This year, we began to make the dream a reality. I feel SO at home here. It’s like it was just meant for us. Every single day I state that I must be dreaming because it seems too good to be true. I can hardly believe we really live here and our dream is not a dream anymore. It’s real.
I thought about the longing I had and how it was always there. I realized today, it must be a little like how we all long for heaven. I truly believe God had placed the desire in my heart for this home long ago, and because God surpasses time, the longing was really for something that was already mine. We just hadn’t gotten to it yet in our realm of time.
Sort of like heaven. We long for it daily because it is already part of us. It’s part of the future where God already lives. We have a home there already as believers in Christ. We just are stuck in this realm of time in our humanness.
Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling,2 Corinthians 5:2
He has also set eternity in the human heart. Ecc. 3:11
Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4
And just like how I have SO MUCH JOY in this home every day, we will have that one day in heaven. Yet, this is only a glimpse of that joy. We can’t even fathom that joy. And that is mind blowing.
Today was a perfect spring day to get outside and do just what we’ve always longed to do.
Real life learning.
Hands on.
No textbook needed, and the boys spent endless time watching the tiny creatures they found in the stream. Tadpoles, mosquito babies, even crayfish. They are learning so much by discovering. And what they don’t know, they can look up because the world is peaking their interest. They are so full of wonder. My oldest actually said, “This is the most exciting thing I can remember in a long time,” as he watched the little tiny creatures swim about.
And then there was the hard work of the day. Making a fence to go around the gardens. Everyone pulled together to dig holes, put in posts, and get it ready. We had one son measure the perimeter and figure out how much fencing we needed. It was a math textbook word problem come to life. Now THAT is learning!
We had a day filled with learning, family, teamwork, and God’s Creation. I can’t think of a better way to spend a day. To God be the glory.
And to think…it’s just a glimpse of what is to come!
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