"Make a Roof For It..."

​Make a Roof For It (Gen. 6:16)

In September our family had experienced water damage to the roof of the house when Hurricane Helene came up from Florida through the Southeast. Ours was an unusual case - our area in Georgia was not hit hard compared to other regions by far - however for us personally the storm, especially due to the heavy rains that had preceded the hurricane, brought extensive damage. 

We spent months searching out roof repair options, with a variety of contractors and roofers doing inspections and giving us estimates. We considered a variety of materials and methods and timelines. We even had a veritable Irish thatcher come for a visit! In the end, on the advice of a friend and with the great help of friends and family, we sketched out a scheme to replace the roof ourselves at Christmas. It proved good for our souls to wait (though it was hard), praying through every threatened rainfall while we protected the majority of the house with tarps. And it proved even better to take on the project ourselves instead of hiring every aspect out - though at first we thought it was crazy - as it became a sort of Amish barn raising experience that we will never forget. It is no small thing that our children will always remember how folks came out to help us put a new roof on the house, and at Christmastime! It was cold but thankfully the weather was mostly clear, even given the couple mornings of frost delay. Full days of deconstructing and constructing, hauling tools and materials up and down the ladders, and hammering, hammering, hammering - broken by the lunch bell and hot cocoa and Christmas cookie breaks in the afternoon (the girls got really proficient at making our jam-tots and gingerbreads!). The men and boys worked up above while the women and children prepped food and played and kept each other company below. It was wonderful, and the cedar-shake roof is beautiful, and we finished the main work just before an unusual-for-us January snow; we will forever be grateful!

Over the Christmas break, too, we abundantly enjoyed the homecoming and long stay of our oldest daughter and son, home from college and boarding school for the break. Not only did the roof project fill our days, but there was a hog butchering, woodshop apprentice work refinishing our home chapel altar, future Hobbit-hole root cellar work, and mulch and firewood deliveries to occupy our time. We made Christmas gifts for each other - little hand-sown felt mice, hand-drawings and painted woodcrafts, woodburned art and cross-stitched tokens. We shopped at the local antique shops for additional personal knickknacks and baubles to gift each other. The children sang and served for Midnight Mass, and the family sang carols at the church Christmas party. On Christmas Day we went over the river and through the woods - really over the interstate and through the city - to grandmother's house to celebrate; and on the way home we stopped in our old neighborhood and went door to door, caroling for some old neighbors - picking up a tradition we used to keep when we lived in town. We had our First Sunday Christmas party, bearing the cold outdoors to sing carols until we all moved in to the warmth of the fire in the hearth, cozy in feasting and conversation and filling the house with music and song long into the night. To top everything off, our goats kidded again this winter, right in the middle of a very cold front but, to our oldest daughter's delight, one of them in the early morning just minutes before she had to leave to catch a flight back to Kansas. We now have three little two week old goats bounding around - with one special one we have to bottle feed and who sleeps in a crate in the house for now - and so life is especially full in that creature-oriented way once again.

When we asked for volunteers to help us build our roof we drew from the story of the Ark, for God instructs Noah in every detail how to build the structure meant to save him and his family from the deluge through which God will exact justice for the iniquity of mankind. God gives Noah specific instructions on materials, dimensions, passengers (man and animal) and every aspect of the Ark, even down to the roof: Make a roof for it, He says. We do not claim Noah's righteousness but we do claim a right to put our faith foremost and do all with hearts seeking God's will. Our home is in the humblest way our little Ark - where we gather our loved ones, put our hands to as fitting work as we can, prayerfully begging the Lord's blessings especially through the intercession of His Mother, Holy Mary. It houses our joys, our sorrows, our successes and failures, our strife and jubilation as creatures. We picked a roof that would be worthwhile in material and construction and experience - a good and beautiful thing, even if not perfectly efficient or longest lasting (we heard much advice on better, more modern techniques). With God's blessing, it will do the job and then some; already the roof is beloved for our hand in the work and memorable for the experience and we hope God is pleased with the way that we live!