WHAT IS HOME?

Jerry passed away the evening of November 26th – He wrote this in advance, to be specifically sent out the morning of November 27th

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As I sip my cup of coffee this morning, I am excited about Thanksgiving! What about you?

As for me, I am excited because of WHO is coming HOME to celebrate this holiday with us! Due to my brain cancer journey, ALL my children and grandchildren, even my precious in-laws, are coming to our house, out of their love, to spend this unique time of Thanksgiving with Debby and me, hallelujah!

QUESTION: LET’S TALK ABOUT HOME? How many different definitions or opinions do we have on the one word, “HOME?”

Inherently, at first we think of our earthly, physical home. What a blessing our physical homes are to us! Our physical homes take on a variety of structures, sizes of rooms, and ages. In our time today, how blessed we are to own a home or to rent a home!

The homes we live in are a precious gift where we spend a LOT of time! But what makes our homes precious to us? I bet your answer is also my answer. What makes our homes precious are the people, my family, in the home! Yes, family, can be ‘rocky’ at times. In fact, we can even be cruel to one another at times. But family also brings about the greatest JOY in our home AS WELL!

PAUSE: I will take all the good and bad times within our home, WHAT ABOUT YOU? In fact, as we celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow, how many would love to have ALL their family together? YES, all the memories of our past, yes, all the sibling stories, yes all the memories. Is it possible as believers to embrace one another anew? Is it possible to forgive? Is it possible to step out of your living room, off your porch, and greet those in need of forgiveness, love, and share a great meal, YES! This may be a family member, could be a neighbor, maybe a friend, oh my…it may be a stranger whom the HOLY SPIRIT speaks clearly to you, TAKE HIM OR HER TO YOUR HOME TOMORROW!

The concept of HOME is often represented in various cultures and scriptures emphasizing not just the physical building, but also the emotional attachment we ALL have to that PLACE where we grew up!

As a boy raised by an Air Force enlisted man, who was a loadmaster in C-130’s, my dad made a decision, early on in our life, to help make sure our family had the finances to be ok, as he traveled the world in the defense of our nation. My first home, my home that would shelter my sister, my brother, and me was a three bedroom trailer!

I look back on this experience today with gratefulness! Of course, as a teenager, sharing a bedroom with my younger brother Bill, who is 6 years younger than I, brought about some very interesting stories (I will leave this for another day!). My dad had made a decision to help us economically. We moved that trailer for over 20 years! When I was 12 years old, I learned how to block that trailer, with his help of course. However by age 14, I could block it up and get it ready without him, if necessary. Now being raised in a trailer is not always looked at favorably, in fact some may not see it like I do, and that is ok. However, what it has taught me is that it is not the size of the rooms (nope) that makes a home to come home to! I have learned it is not the age of the home, or the location of the home.

GOING HOME has ALL TO DO WITH those INSIDE the HOME greeting me, loving on me, sharing food with me and SHARING LIFE WITH ME!

SPEAKING OF SHARING LIFE: I know a friend who is adopted. His adoptive parents brought him home, when he was a baby, and he has always been so grateful for their love, but he struggled with thoughts of rejection from his birth parents. He shared one night and he said, “I have dealt my whole life with the idea that my real parents rejected me. I was consumed by it. It owned me. I choose now to look at it a different way. There is something awesome about being picked by someone who has the choice to pick anybody else, but they want you.” not just a physical dwelling—not just a physical home—but a spiritual and emotional place of belonging, a place where I am CHERISHED, LOVED, JUST AS I AM!

TRANSITIONAL THOUGHT: As I get older, I can honestly say that I want to go HOME! I didn’t always feel this way, but I have seen enough of this world to know that as a believer in God, I am not home, YET!

Someday, IF WE BELIEVE and IF WE YIELD TO JESUS, WE ALL HAVE THE MIRACULOUS OPPORTUNITY OF DWELLING IN HEAVEN, THE HOME WE SHOULD ALL CHERISH, DESIRE, AND LONG TO DWELL WITHIN!

I want for ALL who grew up in trailers, for all who never had much of an earthly home. Be patient, believe, trust as YOU HAVE AN INCREDIBLE THANKSGIVING COMING, A HOME NOT MADE BY HUMAN HANDS BUT AN INCREDIBLE PLACE. WORDS ARE NOT ADEQUATE IN EVEN DESCRIBING…YOUR DREAM OF A MAGNIFICENT HOME, IS A REALITY FORTHCOMING!!

“For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling”! 2 Corinthians 5: 1-2

PONDER THIS TRUTH AS WE CLOSE TODAY:

Ephesians 1:5 says, “In love, He predestined us to be adopted as HIS sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with HIS pleasure and will – to the praise of His glorious grace, which HE has freely given us in the One he loves.” (NIV)