Perhaps like many of you, with spring’s return, I’m launching a ritual I call “fluffing my nest” — putting away all the signs of winter around the house and replacing them with some signs of new life. While all this activity may sound like sheer cosmetics, I’ve concluded that there’s something more basic going on in those of us who manage a home. Someone once said, “While man is the head of the home; woman is the heart.”

As life-givers, it would seem that creating a sanctuary for our families – a safe place where the noise of the world is shut out – is unique to our Creator’s design for women. In reference to Proverbs 14:1, “The wisest of women builds her house …,” Timothy Keller wrote: “This means not to merely construct a physical dwelling but to lay the foundations for a family’s life—socially, economically, materially, emotionally, spiritually.”*

That sounds like a tall order!

Maybe a close look at the blueprint God gave Moses for the house He would dwell in during their wilderness years would be a good starting place for creating our own sanctuaries. Hebrews tells us the Old Testament pattern is symbolic of a spiritual reality.

From the outside, the tabernacle was not all that attractive; but the interior was lavish by any standards. (Another reminder that God is concerned with the inner beauty – the beauty of the heart.) Although it was never intended to be a monument to human artistry; it was resplendent with the glory of God. The women who ministered in the entrance to the tabernacle had sacrificed the very symbol of their feminine vanity, their bronze mirrors, for the construction of the altar. (Exodus 38:8)

Central to God’s house was the Ark of the Covenant containing the Law God had given Moses and topped with the mercy seat symbolizing the mercy, compassion, forgiveness, and grace of a benevolent God. As imitators of God, we may not have the incredible giftedness or resources of Bezalel and his workmen; but we can be intentional about creating a sanctuary, a place of acceptance and welcome for our families where grace is practiced; sin is confessed and forgiven; where mercy triumphs over judgment; and where love covers over past offenses.

In what practical ways can you create a haven for your family that shuts out the profane; where righteousness is celebrated and taught; and where an atmosphere of grace, acceptance, and Christ-like love is being cultivated?

* God’s Wisdom for Navigating Life, Timothy Keller, Viking, New York, N.Y., 2017, pg. 250.