Still Standing

Fifteen years ago, a family gathered in Idaho and built a cabin.  Together. Family came from near and far. Grandpa’s and grandma’s,  husbands and wives, children, brothers and sisters, cousins, good friends. All united by a common goal, to raise a cabin.  Logs were stacked, beams were hoisted, plans were read and re-read.  Nails were hammered.  Caulk was applied.  The green tin of the roof was put in place.  And finally doors and windows were added to make it  “in the dry”.  It was given a name; Still Standing, because as one sibling noted, “It is quite amazing that all us amateurs built this, and it is still standing.”

Flash forward fifteen years later.  The cabin and the family are still standing.  Together.  We are still united by a common goal.  Our love for each other.  We are different, yet we are the same.  We are spread so far apart, yet we are so close.  The family has grown, as has Still Standing.  Each new member leaving their own unique mark on the family and Still Standing, making them both better and stronger. We have lost some family members.  Yet, their spirit is felt here within the walls of Still Standing.

Fifteen years into the future, where will we be?  I don’t know.  I pray we see a family still standing. Together.    A family made up of very different personalities, talents and abilities, united by a common goal;  that of loving each other and their Creator.  Ordinary people using what they have been blessed with to honor and serve Him, each in their own unique way.

Some say Still Standing is just a place.  I beg to differ.  I think it is a living reminder of what family is, and what family can do.  Together.

…having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building,  being fitted togetheris growing into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
                                                                                                                                           Ephesians 2: 20-22

Authors note:

•   We don’t all come from strong families.  I didn’t.  I learned family through my husbands family, in particular my mother in law.  She made sure her 6 kids knew the Lord, without much help from her husband.  Getting 6 kids ready for worhsiping God on Sunday morning is no small task.  How easy it would have been to NOT get up, to NOT get the kids ready, while they no doubt were whining and arguing.  Six kids to get clean, fed, dressed, and out the door to worship God.  Thank you Kathleen.  Your efforts then have made your children who they are today.  And those efforts are still alive, shaping us all.

• We don’t all have strong birth families, but we can all have a strong spiritual family. It takes the same amount of effort and toil that a birth family does.  Learning to love, learning to forgive, growing with all the aches and pains that growth brings until we become knitted TOGETHER into a dwelling of God.   Together for Him and in Him.  There is no better family to be in, than His.