Deepening our Christianity

the Monday Newsletter of Paul Prins

Edition #24 · 22 January 2024

Blessings Reader,

A Parisian Cold Snap

For over a week, it has been below freezing here in Paris. It has felt quite brisk and cold outside. This shift in weather has been unusually cool and long, based on our last 8 years in the city. The climate here is much more temperate than my childhood in Minneapolis, where it was common to stay below freezing for the majority of the winter, and often have weeks that don't get above 0 Fahrenheit.

The 20-inch-thick walls (I just measured them) of this old apartment seem to radiate the cold and place a chill into the air. Even with this mild discomfort, the 115+-year-old building is a blessing. It is a shelter from the elements. It cares for us. It encapsulates us so that we might have life. In the midst of this cold snap, it has become so clear how much care this space has for us. Unmoving, protective, nurturing, and our place of refuge from the city around us.

I am blessed to have a home. To have this space as my home. As I journey across this city and the horizons of the earth, it is still here. It is unchanged. It cares for me today, no matter how I feel or who I am. I cannot imagine a future where this space would spit me out. Nothing that I will become will change this apartment.

This all seems a bit obvious to us. We understand what a home is. The only way for this space to change would be through a lot of effort. How much bigger is the Lord, our God? How much more of a comfort and refuge? Jesus calls us home from the cold and heat of our lives.

As with all metaphors, they break down quickly. For there is nothing we can do to change God. We also lack the access we need to have the flesh of our lives to know refuge in the Lord. Our spirit and soul can, but the blood of the martyrs teaches us that every one of our lives will end. Even the most faithful of us. Even so, it brings me comfort to imagine being encompassed by the Lord within the warmth and care of His tender and perfect love. Maybe even a little bit more at the end of a cold snap that leaves a chill.

Until Next Week

​

​

Unpublished Photo for this Edition

​

A Prayer for the Week to Come

Jesus be a home for us when our spirit is running hot or cold. Remind us we can return to you, to rest in you, and to let the world keep moving. Remind us that we love you. Remind us that you can be found. Found in the quiet, calm, silence, and nothing.

Join Paul Online

​​​​

​

Paris, FRANCE 75003
​Unsubscribe · Preferences​