Home for the holidays…

“Oh there’s no place like home for the holidays.” “I’ll be home for Christmas.” These are wonderful songs of the season and I have always loved Christmas music; it just draws me into the time of the year, family, and a deeper appreciation of home. I know that home is different for everyone. Several years ago I worked at a children’s home and cared for children who came from difficult homes and environments. Many of the children were glad to be removed from their situations and seemed to do well at the children’s home, but it was not home. Even with all that we gave to them, with all the care and attention they were given, with a bed, a roof, food to eat and clothes to wear, even with houseparents…it was not home.
A few years ago my dad was in the hospital for several days and was not doing well and he began to tell us that he wanted to go home. The whole time we were thinking that he was talking about his physical home and we knew he was not well enough to go home, but I am convinced now that he wasn’t completely talking about that home.
I still love going home to see my mom. She is 92 and she still cares for me as her child; I am grateful that I still have her. But as I am home, there is just a special feeling that invades my life. A definition of home is “a place that is native or most common.” Home is where I am from, that is who I am, that is where my affections lie.
Maybe home was so special to me because the affection of home was developed by my family knowing God. My home taught me about knowing Him personally and relationally. When someone comes to know Christ they discover that they were created to be His child. In Ecclesiastes 3 it says “he has put eternity into man’s heart.” They fall in love with the one who created home, and in turn we feel that embrace, that closeness, that right place; we come home, a place where we are from.
Oh there’s no place like home for the holidays…or any other day.

John 14:23(NIV)

23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.