Homecoming...

What does "home" mean to you? 


Have you ever really stopped to think about it?


I've been thinking about it a lot lately...


I can admit now that I've gotten a little too caught up recently in the way our home looks...Instead of surveying the place God has given us with satisfaction, I've been a bit discontented...This room should be painted...The basement is a disaster...When am I ever going to find a headboard for our bed???...But is that all that home is to me? Had I reduced home to just how it appears to everyone else?


We went to a family reunion this weekend. What struck me most was, despite being almost 400 miles from "home", I felt completely at home there....in a picnic grove...in a state park...in the sweltering heat...


Loved ones that I haven't seen for a very long time greeted me and my family with open arms...And we were loved and accepted and had the kind of easy conversation that comes with family...


I realized that, in that place my heart was, home was really just about decoration and appearance. But that isn't what I wanted it to be. 


While it is very beautiful and I am comfortable here, I realize that this is not home, not really anyway. I've decorated and painted and fussed over details, but home is about relationships. Home is safe. A place where you can fully be yourself without judgement or criticism. 


I've realized that it's not a "place" for me...Home isn't 4 walls and a roof...Home is being with the ones I love and rejoicing, not in the beauty of the place, but in the beauty of the people God has blessed me with. And while I'll probably continue to search for a headboard, I'm glad that God has shown me what it means to truly be at home.