dwelling place

10/19/11 Last evening Cathy and I were walking down the center path of the park behind our house. The sun was going down in the west. I looked through the brush and saw what looked like a tarp, it was in camo, very hard to distinguish from the surrounding greenery. I paused. It was someone's home.

We have had issues with several people living in our park. We have cleaned up their camps before. It is not safe. It is not sanitary.

Back at our house, I called the police. They heard my story. They tried to find the camp on their own in the dark. At 9 p.m., I tried to help them to find it in the dark. No luck.

This morning, I walked the path again. In the daylight, I found it, well hidden. I called the police again. I waited for them. At last, they came. I led them to the person's home, the tent in the woods.

My breath for the day is appropriately Psalm 90:1, "Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations." I have been pondering what it means to have a home, or to be homeless. Home is a place, but it is more than a place; it is a person. I hope the homeless man or woman in our park knows that he/she has a home in God at least. I hope that the system will help him or her also find a home that is warm, safe, and structured here on earth, a dwelling place.

Love,
Lynn