Moving into a home is a really emotional experience, but it’s also deeply spiritual. Your family is moving into a space that will hold scraped-knee tears, living room forts, and of course — gobs of forgiveness and mercy. And to prepare for all it will hold, there’s a blessing for moving into a new home in a book called “Every Moment Holy” (Vol. 1) . Whether you’ve lived in your house for 0 days or 5,284, this is a sweet prayer to bless your home and point your heart toward the important things to come.
A Blessing for Moving
Into a New home
from Every Moment Holy, Vol. 1
We thank you for this new home, O Lord, for the shelter it will provide, for the moments of life that will be shared within it.
We thank you for this new home, and we welcome you here.
Dwell with us in this place, O Lord.
Dwell among us in these spaces,
In these rooms.
Be present at this table as we eat together.
Be present as we rise in the morning
and lie down at night.
Be present in our work here.
Be present in our play.
May your Spirit inhabit this home,
making of it a sanctuary
where hearts and lives are knit together,
where bonds of love are strengthened,
where mercy is learned and practiced.
May this our home be a harbor of
anchorage and refuge,
and a haven from which we journey forth
to do your work in your world.
May it be a garden of nourishment
in which our roots go deep
that we might bear fruit
for the nourishing of others.
May this our home be a place of knowing
and of being known,
a place of shared tears and laughter;
a place where forgiveness is easily asked and granted,
and wounds are quickly healed;
a place of meaningful conversation,
of words not left unsaid;
a place of joining, of becoming,
of creating, and reflecting;
a place where our diverse gifts
are named and appreciated;
where we learn to serve one another
and to serve one another
and to serve our neighbors as well;
a place where our stories are forever twined
by true affections.
Grant also, O Lord, that our days lived
gratefully within these temporary walls,
enjoying these momentary fellowships,
would serve to awaken within us a restless
longing for our truer home. Incline our
hearts ever toward the glories
of that better city, built by you, O God –
a city whose blessings are never-ending,
and whose fellowships are eternally
unbroken.
Amen.