Genesis 35:3 (NKJV)

³ Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone.

File this away for future reference: When you get there, build an altar.

A few days ago Sonja and I walked out of our “home” for the last time.  Oh we still own a house but we packed up “home” and moved it to a new location.  That’s OK, that is a part of life and most people have experienced what I am talking about.

However, I must say, while our house at 815 Savannah Place Drive was our address it was a special home for us.  As I walked through that empty house on that last day I reflected on a lot of good memories: memories of Christmases shared, potluck dinners with friends, home-cooked-with-love meals with my family, wild and hectic days of little feet and little voices filling the house and quiet evenings of just Sonja and me relaxing after a long day.

Whatever the occasion, it was home—a safe place, a place of love, laughter, and sharing of burdens and tears.   Above all it was a sacred place, a place where God abode with us and that didn’t happen by accident.

Just as I’ll never forget the last time I walked out of my home; I’ll never forget the first time I walked into my home.  Sonja did the house-shopping.  I did not even see the house until after we had signed the papers, but once we had signed the papers I knew it was time for me to act.  We drove up to the house and I walked in and the first thing I did was get on my knees and dedicate that house to God…

…Symbolically, I built an altar

…I made it a sacred place

…a place where God was included

…and that was when my house really become my home.

That is my reminder for you today.  Whether it is a new home, a new car, a new job, a new relationship, and new anything…

• The ONE THING for today: When you get there, build an altar, it will make all the difference.