From chicken coops to castles...

It's funny the things I think about now, as I look back to our growing up years. I remember lots of it, but some happened even before I was born.

There is royalty in my blood! I wrote about it here. This is my castle in the Black Forest area of Germany. :)

It was not the kind of royalty that really means anything though. I would be a princess today if the tradition in my dad's family had continued. It didn't, I'm not. Now it is a castle for tourists. It still bears my dad's family name, although the spelling changed generations ago. My mother was born in Norway, she married dad, a preacher from America, and left a prosperous family in Norway where her dad was the mayor of Tromso and a successful business man, to become a preacher's wife.

That's the royal part of my family genes, but there is more...

Before I was born, my mom and brother often traveled with dad when he was preaching in other states. On one of those trips, the church where dad preached  'housed' the preacher and his family in what they could afford... it was a former chicken coop behind the main house. 

My mother remembers taking a broom to the dirt 'floor' and sweeping it out, and my brother happily played among the chickens who still gathered there. It's been a great story for our family all these years. 

Now, in retrospect, I can see the grace of my parents, the way my mom handled each new "adventure" is such an example to me. I can't imagine spending a night in a chicken coop, and it certainly would not be without grumbling and complaining.

Even though they never had much money, God provided things for our family that many others never got to experience. Taking the Queen Mary to Norway to visit my mother's family, spending summers traveling all around the USA as dad preached, entertaining in our home so many real heroes of the faith, from Corrie Ten Boom to Bill and Vonette Bright, and so many more. Names I now know to be the leaders of their day in the world of Christianity. They were my heroes of the faith. 

I had a rich childhood, one that I treasure, one that has helped to shape who I am.

From chicken coops to castles... what a journey in the faith my parents had. What they left for me was their example, in all of it. They had grace in the chicken coop and grace in their castle experiences, and balance to understand that all of it was part of life. I have drawn on their well of wisdom a thousand times in my own life.

I am reminded that The King of Kings had no place to lay his head. He didn't even own a home. His birth was in a stable. His death was on the cross. And yet... his life was lived with love and grace, and the examples and lessons he has given us are the very things that guide us as we move through life. 

Just as my parents knew, I also know... He is our King, and we are all a part of His family... we are all royalty.