Home

I love my home.

I love the smell of fresh bread as it's being pulled from the oven.

I love the warmth of flannel sheets that cocoon me on chilly mornings.

I love the smiles and laughter and inside jokes that are part of knowing someone forever.

I love the memories created here.

Home means comfort; acceptance; a place to belong and feel safe; a place where I grow and my mistakes are covered by love. I've learned to value this place and these people highly. God has blessed us.

And to give me greater blessing, He asks me to forsake it. No, not to forsake in the sense of abandonment or ceasing to love, but to consider all things as secondary to following Him. To serve and love even more for His sake. And yes, to be willing to step beyond comfort.

"And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life." (Matt 19:29)

If we are not "at home" everywhere He leads us, we are not in a spiritual state that is prepared for heaven.

Christ himself must become our home. He must become everything. Is it any wonder that scripture describes God in the terms of almost every human relationship? He is our brother, friend, father, healer, guide, bridegroom, king, master, shepherd, saviour, teacher, and the list goes on. He is our shelter, food, drink, and comfort. He is the one who clothes us with His righteousness!

When we realize this earth is not our home, nothing can hold us back from Him. All places will be home, for His glory is our refuge. We will be ready when He calls us away from that which we have at once renounced and embraced for His sake, and will fly with the joy of fulfillment to the presence of Him who was our only vision.

I'm writing this because, well, I'm a wimp sometimes. I need to remember, not just when it's fresh and real to me, but when my soul faces tumult and doubt. I am inspired by the words of Paul in Philippians 3:7-12

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

I love Paul's postscript there - "not that I have already obtained all this".... but that "Christ Jesus took hold of me."

It's about knowing Christ. It's about coming back to the Father who waits with arms wide open! (Luke 15) Home is where Jesus lives - and whenever my heart surrenders to Him, I am home.

What I'm Learning...

It's been a busy week... I'm not used to eating most of my meals either before or after the rest of the family, or spending more time out than at home. The hardest part is not being able to have much of a schedule. New things have popped up unexpectedly, and my work schedule is sporadic to say the least. Thankfully, I have a few days where I'm not working now, unless someone calls and asks me to take a shift.

It's those days when I'm out of the house at 8 am and not back until 9 pm, tomorrow's homework still needs to be done, the bathroom is getting scary, my bed still isn't made from yesterday, and I can hardly read a Psalm before I crash, that I start to wonder why I'm doing this.

God has a plan.

And goodness - He's teaching me so much.

I'm learning that although I'm grateful for this opportunity to take a semester at University, I'm not going to be doing this for another four years, unless it's for something practical like nursing. (Which is still a possibility - waiting to see where the Lord leads for that one.)

I'm learning what it is I love about learning.  Those years of homeschooling were what taught me to love and value knowledge - and not just knowledge, but to begin to seek wisdom, something that is not the basis or goal of university learning.

But far beyond that, He's teaching me some incredible things about seeking Him and putting everything in His hands. I can't get over how beautiful life becomes when the reality of who my God is - as Saviour and Creator - is at the forefront. It really doesn't matter what's going on, because though I often don't understand, and sometimes kick and scream a little, He is sovereign. He's making beauty that I can't even imagine yet.

I see it as I sit waiting for the bus, looking up at the incredible fall colours of the giant maples across the street. My God made those trees! Yes, I see Him more and more in these small (but oh so majestic!) things, but also in the big things as well.

In pain, in tragedy, in changes and new births, HE IS SOVEREIGN. In everything, may my desire be simply to follow Him.