8|26 Coming Home

Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection. Schopenhauer

I can see it to this day. I was about ten years old and we had traveled hundreds of miles to come home. Home, for us anyway, was Lubbock, Texas. My parents grew up in Lubbock and we made the pilgrimage every year to visit my grandparents. This particular homecoming found my Granny watering her front lawn. When she looked up and recognized who it was that was pulling up to her curb, she threw up her arms, the hose flying from her hand, and jumped up and down with glee. She was about 70 at the time but her joy was that of a four year-old.

I remember the excitement of the anticipation of "going home" each summer and Christmas when I was a boy. We lived in many different towns while growing up - Denver, Seattle, Houston and Casper, Wyoming - but regardless of where we lived, home was always Lubbock. The joy began from the first moment that Mom & Dad announced that we would be going home soon, and it built up to an almost unbearable excitement as the day approached. Steve and Nancy and I were the kids who invented the question, "Are we almost there?" and we started with the question after the first few miles of every trip. The drive seemed like it would never end and then, when it finally did, we could scarce contain our happiness: We were home! And, there was just nothing in this world like it. It was heaven on earth!

I loved my Granny. She passed away at 98. As much as I loved coming home when I was a little boy, I am looking forward with even greater anticipation that grand reunion that God has planned for His faithful children. I know that I don't deserve to be there at that reunion, but I am making plans to go there all the same. And though I have been familiar with God's plan for our homecoming on that great day since I was a little boy, it still evokes within me a thrill and excitement that is hard to put into words: I am going Home someday! This is the #1 goal of my life. It can only be accomplished by God's rich grace and Christ's sweet sacrifice - I know that - but I am determined to do my part, and I am just as determined to encourage my dear family to do theirs.

We are going Home someday and we will be with our loved ones again! Please understand that I don't say this out of presumption, but if my loved ones have been as faithful as they appeared to be and if I will be but faithful, then we will be there at that grand reunion because God is faithful. We Are Going Home! How about you?

Brothers, we don't want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. I Thessalonians 4:13-14, NIV