Come on Home- OBB; Softly and Tenderly- Hymn sung by Amy Grant

What is home?  There are quotes that tell us:  Home is where you hang your hat.  Home is where my crazies live.  Home is where your heart is.  Home is the place where when you have to go there, they have to take you in.  Charity begins at home but it shouldn't end there.

I went back to my hometown last spring.  It was so cool to drive down the streets that I used to cruise.  I remember community soccer clubs.  I remember being 13 and finally able to go to the swimming pool without my parents supervision.  I remember Christmas parties where all of our neighbors and church friends came for open house to begin the holiday season and where we prepared homemade chocolates for them.  The love we felt there.  I remember home.  As I went back, I realized that there was heartache there too.  Where my dad left us and how my mom struggled.  I left my small community saddened by how things had changed.  Home wasn't what I thought it would be like 24 years later. 

As an adult child, I have realized that home isn't a place but rather a group of people that bind themselves together.  I was raised by my mom... but I was also raised by two grandparents, an aunt and with a brother and 2 cousins.  That was our family and that was our home.  On Sundays, we would meet, faithfully, at my grandparents home to share a meal.  Their house was home as much as my house was home.  But just as my  house in Nashville wasn't home, now Easley is no longer my home.

As I now begin the journey of finding a home for myself and my daughter, I find that home seems elusive.  It seems that every place we look isn't the right house... something is missing.  I think home is more about a Person, rather than four walls and paint.  Home is where you go when you need refreshment, restoration and relaxation.  I don't know that I will ever find "home" this side of heaven.  That is our ultimate home, our eternal destination. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7kB7MQ96HM

This song describes coming home.  I am reminded of the story of The Prodigal Son.  I have recently read a book called, The Prodigal God, which I have blogged about before.  It describes that the Father, God, was the extravagant one.  He spent everything to bring us "home". 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llW43xp_BXc&feature=kp

Here is a song I  grew up singing.  It again describes God watching for you and for me- beckoning us to "come home." 

Come Home, Come home

ye who are weary come home.

Earnestly and tenderly Jesus is calling

Calling oh sinner come home.

 

I don't know about you, but I can't wait to "go home."  To a place where there is no more heartache, sickness, death or pain.  A place where we can truly hang our hats, and have our souls refreshed.  For now, I will try to create a home where God is the central figure, a home filled with laughter, and joy, grace for my daughter and filled with peace for all who enter.