“It is good to get away, but it is really good to come back home.”
Late last night, and into early this morning, we returned from our family vacation. We had a great time together with my brother, his family, and my parents. While part of me wanted the vacation to go on and on, there was this other part that started to take over while waiting for the shuttle to come to take us back to our car. That part couldn’t wait to get home. I think that is a good sign.
It wasn’t just my bed and pillow I wanted, although that is what I said, I also wanted my regular, ordinary, everyday life to return. I wanted to go back to work, back to the family chores and conversations, back to normal. Maybe that says that I’m boring and/or weird. Or maybe instead it says something about what home really is.
In the mid-1970s Billy Joel had a song called “You’re My Home” which contained the lyrics:
Home could be the Pennsylvania turnpike
Indiana’s early morning dew
high up in the hills of California
home is just another word for you.
So I’ve been contemplating today what those things are that make me feel “at home.” For Billy Joel it was this woman, I presume, to whom this song was written. I think he was a little misguided, but on to something. Part of what makes it “home” is knowing that you are loved for who you are. Maybe that is why we talk about the Kingdom of God as our Heavenly home – the place where we are infinitely loved and accepted.
What is it for you? What would make you feel more “at home” tomorrow? How can you strive to find your “home” wherever you are?