Last night I had the rare privilege of welcoming my Stake Relief Society President and the wife of our area authority—here for Stake Conference this weekend—into my home for a brief visit. She is one of those genuinely lovely women who holds an incredible awareness of the good she can do. She is filled with sunshine and the kind of good smells and hominess that accompany Thanksgiving and Christmas, but without the sense of lethargy that follows Thanksgiving dinner. On the contrary, our home was alive with the lightning-quick thinking and comforting sharpness that accompanies the Holy Ghost.
The call ran much like a Visiting Teaching appointment, they asking me to flesh out my recent experiences, with Sister S— sharing a message largely on gratitude. If I were to sum the message up: The Lord has things in hand and is waiting to bless us, but we need to acknowledge His hand first to allow those blessings to come. Yes. I’d already been thinking about this concept a little, and enjoyed getting her very wise take on it.
It felt good in my home last night. Of course we’d cleaned the place well, but it was much more than that. My mind felt sharp—smarter than usual these tired days. I felt at peace and there was an expansive sense of being loved. The Spirit was present. There was great peace pervading every corner of my house. It swept around Eva’s toy corner, played lightly around the kitchen sink, hid underneath my couch, and even arched into the vaulted ceilings. For a long time I’ve wanted what I will call “a Christmas house.” This is the place we all imagine spending Christmas Eve—surrounded by good food, tantalizing smells, warm colors, and your favorite people.
At one point, this angelic woman paused and said there were angels present in our home. It was a place they could dwell. She should know. I did not expect to write an Angels the V, but there it is. Perhaps they wanted to be a part of the discussion. Personally, I dislike watching a good conversation without being allowed to put in my own two cents worth of participation. I wonder if they ever feel the same. It has been a long time coming, but I hope my home has finally reached the ‘my-home-is-like-a-temple’ status, which I now realize matches my idea of the “Christmas House.”
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