Now the One who fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.

For we live by faith and not by sight.

We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with God.

II Corinthians 5:5-8, NIV

 

What do you think of, when you hear the word home?

 

For me, when I was a little boy, home was Lubbock, Texas. I had never actually lived there, it's true, but it still represented home in my mind for it was the place that Mom and Dad referred to as home. When I was young, we lived in places like Denver, Seattle, Houston, back to Denver again, and then Casper, Wyoming. And even though these were the places we lived for varying periods of time, they were not really home, for home was Lubbock, and all we kids understood that.

 

Lubbock was the place my Mom and Dad grew up. It was in Lubbock that they went to high school, and it was there that they got their first jobs. They met in Lubbock and were married there. They had their first child there (my brother). So, after they moved and had been away for many years, it is not surprising that they still looked at this town as home. 

 

Now, I looked at it as home, too, but it was for a far different reason. You see Lubbock was where my Granny, Mammaw and Aunt Gladys lived. My grandfathers died at an early age, and i barely knew one, and didn't know the other one at all. But my grandmothers and aunt? Well, that was a different situation entirely, for I knew them and loved them better than anyone else, with the exception of Mom and Dad.

 

So, when Mom and Dad mentioned that we would be going home for Christmas, Thanksgiving, or a summer vacation, we didn't have to wonder where they were talking about, for we knew that home was where our grandmothers lived. Just the mention of "going home" would send us into a type of frenzied excitement, as well as an anticipation for what would be waiting for us when we got there. Mammaw and Aunt Gladys were sisters who lived two blocks apart, and they would shamelessly compete for our affections from the moment we arrived until that sad time when we pulled out of their driveways for the last lime. They had ice cold Cokes and Dr. Peppers in ready supply. Aunt Gladys would invite us to spend a night or two with her, and when we did she usually had a freshly baked buttermilk cake waiting for us.

 

At Granny's home, clear on the other side of town, we had a precious lady who lived to see her family. I can remember pulling up in front of her home one evening when she was watering her lawn with a hand-held hose attachment. When she saw us pull up, she literally threw that hose up into the air and come running towards the car, her face bursting with laughter and emotion from seeing one of her seven children and his family finally arrive for a visit. 

 

Granny's specialty was cooking, and we would always walk in to a house filled with the unbelievably wonderful smells of fried chicken, mashed "taters" and a freshly baked chocolate meringue pie!

 

My parents and grandparents are all gone now, but the memories of home are still a powerful memory. I miss those days of coming home, because they were some of the best times of my life, and I cannot think of them without a sense of joy at the memories they call to mind. There are a lot of reasons for this, but I suspect the main ones are that home was where the people I loved were. Home was a place of comfort and safety and acceptance. It was a place where we were highly valued and deeply loved, and we knew it. 

 

Sometimes, I have the opportunity to drive past the old places in Lubbock that we used to call home, but it is never the same. It just isn't home anymore, because the people who made it home are no longer there. And while this makes me a bit sad, it does not distress me too much, because I know that Home is still awaiting me. 

 

God and Christ have prepared a home for me, and I long to be there someday. Though I have never seen it, I feel that I know, at least a little bit, of what it will be like. And I long for that home more and more as the years go by for many of the same reasons that I longed for "home" when I was a little boy. For home, has always been that place where family awaits your arrival with a devoted anticipation that you never experience from others. Home is that place of comfort and safety and acceptance. And as God reveals though the inspired writings of the Apostle Paul, home is that place where we truly belong!

 

It is not in this physical world, nor this physical body, both of which just seem to get older and more worn out with the passing of time. No, home is that place that we were created for from the very beginning. It is in fact the only place where we can ever feel truly at home, even though none of us have ever lived before. It is the home of Those who love us more than anyone else possibly could, and They are awaiting our arrival. But as long as we are "at home" in these physical bodies in which we currently reside, we can never truly be at home.

 

Now, don't get me wrong: I like living in this physical world and in this physical body and intend to do so for as long as God believes me to be useful here - but they are not my real home! Home is with God and Christ, and I long to see them some day. I love being around my family here on earth, but this world is not my home. Heaven is home, and I am looking forward to being there. As a matter of fact, there are days that I cannot wait, for I know that I will then be where I was created to be: Home!

 

What do you think of, when you think of "home"?