When my parents introduced me to my first bedroom as a baby, they did so with a certain creative flare; my premier dwelling place featured a custom painted mural of two larger than life lions filling one wall, and on an adjacent wall, a waving racing stripe with the big bold words: Here's Mark!
There was something about the effort and time that went into the design of that room that I've always recognized and remembered.
Which is why my wife and I put our creative minds together to do something along those same lines.
Unfortunately our library/den had to take one for the team, after banishing all the books to the basement, we repainted, added mirrored doors to the closet and installed a rather large closet organization system.
Of course all that was done in the 5th month of our pregnancy and we've been procrastinating ever since.
Fast forward to the predicted week of arrival for our special little blessing, and we kicked things into high gear (because manual labour was made for women who are 9 months preggers)!
We crammed the entire redesign and furnishing into a fun-filled day of building/construction, tool-throwing, toe-stubbing, head-smacking, shock-administering, tear-jerking, and God-blessing!
The end result was a cozy little nursery filled with a smorgasbord of stuffed animals and the matching Noah's Ark theme (can't beat the neutrality of animals - since we don't know what we're having).
However, the real project of this room relates back to that childhood mural of mine. I can pretty much define it as the catalyst of my imagination growing up, so I wanted to ensure our son or daughter would have something along those lines to envision, and spur on any creative juices that may flow in the first years of their life. But more specifically, I wanted to inject the major component that was missing from my most influential dormitory: a reason for my being, and the creator of my existence.
Growing up I never knew or had a relationship with an unconditionally loving Father in Heaven, and so there was always an element of hope that was missing from my life.
The one thing I want most for my child is to know the truth about an all-knowing Creator who fearfully and wonderfully made every being on this Earth. That He is to be honoured, glorified, loved and cherished, and that He transformed me in the same way we transformed this room.
May the Lord dwell richly within these four walls, and do the things for this child that I in my folly and insignificance cannot do.
We thank God for this next chapter in our lives, and for the blessing of the ministry known as "Parenthood".
