The women come from all walks and seasons and sizes and shapes. They’re the Breakfast Club of friends, if you will. A melting pot of trials and victories and losses and gains. They’ve walked with each other through boyfriends, jobs, marriages, miscarriages, children, homes, moves, laughs, cries, pounds lost, pounds gained, hair colors, hair styles, risks, comforts, frustrations, fights, make ups and make overs. And yet they still stand. The enemy has huffed and puffed but could not blow their House down.

Their House is not built with straw or built upon the sand. It’s built upon a Rock, you see. And the mortar that holds the bricks together as the House is built is Love.

It’s taken years to build this House. It’s incomplete, but it’s beautiful. They build it slowly but solidly. And brick by brick and wall by wall, the House has provided shelter and safety for these women. There are times when the rain comes in and the wind tosses them wildly, for there is no roof. But they are never overtaken by the rain or by the wind. The rain dries and the wind settles and they are again at peace, and can again take flight. Because if this House had a roof, they would never be free to fly.

They aren’t able to visit the House frequently. They may stop over for a weekend or a day or a week or a month. But one thing is unspoken and known deep in their bones: when they walk through the door, they can drop their baggage, flop on the couch, exhale loudly and be loved.

I miss these women and this House that God has built. This House is five strong — five points on a shooting star that has no limits in the worlds God has created. Five points that blaze into opposite directions, yet are united at the core. Five points that need to once again face the Son and gain enough Light to continue to twinkle and shine for His name’s sake.

And tomorrow, I get to walk through the door and drop my bags and exhale loudly and be loved. Tomorrow, I get to again become part of a star that twinkles high above the house. Where I can look up into the velvet night and see this star shining bright, since there is no roof to block my view. I get to lay the mortar of love and put down a few more bricks, further building this House on a Rock.

This is what I am most grateful for this week — my House, my Rock, and the Son that binds us all together.

What are you grateful for?