My Whole House is Outside - and the significance of Grand Openings

I have a friend who recently moved away.  She was my go-to friend if I needed help decorating for an event or for ideas if I was hosting a shower....I could call her and she would show up and the place would turn into the coolest looking space.  But then she moved.  Why would she do that and leave me on my own???  

Now we're hosting this Grand Opening.  So funny.  Still can't believe we're doing this.  I wanted to buy all sorts of decorations.  I wanted to make it super "Grand Opening-y", but I wasn't sure how.  I wasn't sure how to do that cheaply and yet make it super cool.  I wanted my friend to help me.  But she moved.  So then, as I thought and thought about it, I don't know if I prayed about it, all of a sudden these ideas kept popping in to my head.  It was as if my friend was telling me what to do!  I ignored them at first.  They were crazy thoughts and each thought seemed impossible.  Too much work.  I could never get everyone on board, but then I finally decided to just see if I could pull it off and I went for it.

In my head, I kept hearing, "Take it all outside".  First thing I thought of were the tables.  That would be cool.  Then, the chairs for the tables.  Ok....and then I heard, the leather chairs, all  of our single-seat upholstered chairs.  Next, all the vine balls and trees throughout the entire house.  Oh, and all the crates, candle holders, and anything that looked farm-y like our window frames and antiques laying around.  I would also need a dozen hay bales and pumpkins.  That wouldn't be a problem.  My husband bought 100 pumpkins a few weeks ago, so we had lots of those.

Then, I went to work.  I had all the kids go get all those crazy things and bring them to me outside and then I just started running around the farm, decorating every nook and corner creating "vignettes" of farm life.  It is hard to decorate the outdoors!  In a house you have a small enclosed space with defined walls and ceilings, but the outdoors?  How do you decorate the outdoors?!  But, I'm convinced God used that voice in my head and directed me on how to do it.  And I cannot say it enough - it looks amazing!!!!  Instead of walls to lean things against, I used giant hay bales in our maze or the farm gate.  Instead of area rugs, I used grass and I positioned all our soft chairs in a cozy seating arrangement for the seniors coming tomorrow.  Instead of lighting, I used the sky and place dall our tables (I didn't know we had so many) and made it like a restaurant, but instead of a couple feet apart there's lots of distance so my "restaurant" is soooo spacious and yet still so inviting!

I wanted people who had been here many times to see that it wasn't our regular space.  I wanted it to look like it wasn't Dollar Store decorations, though I have balloons from there still coming.  I wanted it to look like you had come to my house, but instead of coming in, you would be outside.  Well, the irony is, that it is my house, just OUTSIDE!  It is amazing.  I don't know how it all came together, but I give all the glory to God who somehow placed it in my head to think like my friend.  

We had Harvest Host people come last night while I was in the middle of setting it all up.  The couple just loved it.  As she started to see what I was doing she just went on and on telling me how amazing the atmosphere was, or as my kids say, "she loved the vibe".  I love the vibe!  And it was free!  I just had to move my indoors outdoors!  The only problem now is that my house looks awful now inside and the dust bunnies have now shown themselves.  I guess it was time for a good dusting anyway.  And, sadly, everything will have to go back in as rain is coming next week.  The other amazing thing is that no rain is in the forecast, so I was able to put it all out knowing it wouldn't rain all over the upholstered chairs.  I'm just so happy.

I've said this before, but I just see how God loves me when He speaks my language.  I know decorations don't matter, or do they?  Isn't it a way God helped me?  Isn't it a way that God reminded me of my friendship with this special lady?  I think so.  I didn't have to hire someone - I wanted to!  I didn't have to get a special events planner.  I wanted to!  It doesn't look Dollar Store-y - it looks amazing!  I always wish my husband would give me everything I want, like an unlimited decorating budget, but when he doesn't, oddly, I find myself forced to stretch, forced to grow and then, the amazing thing that happens is that I find I have abilities and skills I didn't know I had!  

Grand Openings are for the birds.  They're hard.  Starting new businesses. Also - for the birds.  Yet, the whole experience keeps opening new doors, keeps stretching us way beyond what we thought we could do and it keeps showing us we can do more than we ever thought.  By God's grace, we are more capable than we give ourselves credit for and, also by God's grace, He keeps supplying our every need, even decorating ideas.

Do I want to host a Grand Opening every weekend?  No.  I don't.  But what I like about it is that it shakes things up a bit.  I get super bored keeping my furniture the same way all the time.  I had actually just finished rearranging things in our home just last week.  I do that all the time, so this is just rearranging furniture again, but on a whole other scale.  My kids complained, at least a couple of them, the whole time.  It was like pulling teeth, but then when it was all done, I think they liked it.  So, maybe I'm a little crazy, but it could just be that they appreciate that part of their mom.  One said, "Whose parents do this?  Whose parents start wineries?  Whose parents take all their furniture outside?"  I have to admit, I don't know.  Just us, I guess.  Sorry!

But, as I spoke with our guests yesterday, they were super encouraging as they heard our story and it was fun to retell it as I do almost every time we have someone come by.  And each time I tell it, I marvel at our new freedom.  We wake up each day pinching ourselves that we can make an income off our farm.  It goes back to the sound of "marching in the trees".  We were told to quit when we heard that sound.  And, as I walked around the farm that day praying "should we quit?"  I felt the breeze in my face and I looked around the land, felt the land under my feet and I thought to myself - this is the sound of marching in the trees - we have land in Niagara!  We can make the land work for us!  I didn't know how, but I knew we could figure it out.  And, one thing people keep saying as they come to our farm is, "you're going to be ok, you'll do fine, you've got this" and I'm starting to believe them.  I think we'll make it!

Grand Openings don't sound Biblical, yet they are in Scripture!  King David wanted a Grand Opening.  He wanted to be the guy who built a house for God, but he wasn't allowed.  It was going to be his son instead.  But he thought to himself, "Ok, I can't build the house, but I'll do everything in my power to help my son build it".  He brought every single thing he could think of so his son would be prepared. He also asked everyone who was willing and able to offer their skills and freewill offerings.  Everyone did.  Everyone helped.  Everyone used their skills.  Then, when everyone had brought their gifts and saw all that had been accomplished, they all sat back and rejoiced.  1 Chronicles 29 says, "Then the people rejoiced because they had given willingly, for with a whole heart they had offered freely to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly."

David then praises and thanks God because he knows where everything comes from and who should get the glory, "But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you....O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own."  Only God, he's saying.  Only God.  Yet, God uses people and, in our case, our family.  The kids have literally used their skills and their time - freely.  We don't pay our kids.  We speak of an inheritance, but we don't pay them.  We do a lot of bribing with Mcdonald's and ice-cream or gas and coffee money, but no one gets an hourly wage.  So, we say, along with David, "and now I have seen your people, who are present here, offering freely and joyously to you."  Freely is the key word here.  Joyously?  Not always, but they are willing and they see the big picture.  I'm so grateful for that.

Today our official "merch" should arrive.  We will be celebrating with its arrival as it means something.  We're official.  And we will give thanks.  David offered sacrifices on the altars.  We won't be offering any animal sacrifices, except bbq'd sausages, but we'll be thanking God for sure.  And that is why I think the Grand Opening is so significant.  We're celebrating God's goodness to us.  We're celebrating the work of our family.  We're  celebrating all the preparations that went in to getting us this far.  David got it.  Verse 22 puts it this way, "And they ate and drank before the Lord on that day with great gladness."  That's exactly what Saturday will mean for us.  We will eat and drink with great gladness and it'll be so fun.