An Act of Love, Reciprocated

TA DA!~ This is my Chicken Coop ahem.. the chicken chateau to be more precise. It is indeed a beauty. I am so happy with how this turned out. My Dad worked from a Sunday afternoon to late Thursday night to complete this for us. Through the experience of watching my Dad build this (and some help from me) from scraps from around my house, something more intimate was revealed to me. The day he completed this coop, I was quite emotional. After a day or two praying asking the Lord to show me what it truly was, He reminded me there is power in love. Love holds the power to transform people, heal, redeem, restore, and the flowing blessing accompanied by love can touch the very heart of even the most unhappy person. What my Dad spent day and night working so diligently on was done out of Love. And looking at this picture and I see the pride, and love radiating from my Father. He gave me a gift, that was more than what money can buy, Love.


The inside of the chicken chateau holding 3 nesting boxes, a side door to gather eggs and easy clean up.

Let me back up a little and shovel up some past history to clarify why my father building the chicken coop brings so much emotion to me. Here below, is a picture of my father and I when I was about 12. I was always a daddy's girl. I loved my daddy in fact when I was even younger and I didn't see him much or have a picture of him; I carried around a picture of Tigger(pooh's friend) because he reminded me of him. About the time this picture was taken, my stepmother Dora whom I loved so dearly had passed away only months (May of 95') before from a terrible car accident. When she was alive, we lived on the farm where I expressed in a few posts back the best times in my life. My dad built the chicken coop on the farm too, except it was huge!

Fast fwd a few years after this picture I was living in MI where I moved from home to home for a few years, it was tough times. My Father made some choices that affected his life and mine significantly where the relationship between us was strained to say the least. I realized around 15, that I could not hold unforgiveness in my heart for either one of my parents choices. I know it was God who led me to a scripture that truly carried me in the times where I just couldn't understand the whys concerning my parents. It was Psalms 27:10.
I know even then the Lord's hand was well at work in my life.

When I moved back to TX and in with Bryce and Tammi; slowly my Father and I began to reconcile. No matter what happened in the past I loved him still, and I knew he loved me too. It was most important that I had some relationship with both of my parents despite the past. Love conquers all and because of God's love for us, he sent Jesus who was without sin to be the sacrifice so we may be reconciled to our Creator and so we are also called to walk in love, and forgive. It says in, 2 Corinthians 5:18
The Message (MSG)

16-20... "Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We're Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them. We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you."

I choose to walk in love, and for that I know I am blessed because what came out of it was forgiveness, reconciliation, redemption, strength, and a testimony that with God all things are possible. Many years later, we have a much better relationship. It's not perfect but in reality what relationship is?! I am blessed to spend time in fellowship with my Father, listen to his stories, listen to his infectious joyful laugh, act goofy with him, and watch him horse around with my kids like he did with my brother and I when we were children.

There is power when you walk in Love. So as I look at the chicken coop he built for us, it represents his labor of love to me. Let me also share that he has definatley done things for me and I always have known he loved me, but something more was brought out from this particular act. It is a piece of my childhood given back to me, a sort of redeeming of years lost, refreshes memories of the farm, the good ol' days where my stepmother would be cookin' up a good ol' puerto rican dish, and my father out working on some project around the house, the days where I hadn't a care in the world. This has certainly been a full circle act of love to me, in the form of a chicken coop.

My Dad and I in front of the chicken chateau. :)

Love!!!!


Dear Dad,

I love you. I am so thankful for you. I appreciate all the hard work you did in building this coop. You not only gave me this gift, but I believe it was more healing balm to what God has done in our relationship. You know, God is really an awesome God! We are truly blessed to know a good and loving God through Jesus who redeems, restores, and with him restoration means its better than it was!  I thank you for being a encourager to me to lean on our Jesus when times are tough and you know I will always do the same for you. You are my Dad and my friend. Happy Father's Day.

Love,

Naomi

(Now we have picked out colors to paint the coop so as soon as the TX heat goes from 105 to a bit cooler, we will get on it! We are closer to gettin our chicks! whooot!)