I sit at the base of an old Oak with a funny little four year olds face not six inches from my own whiskered face. In no time at all I am heading toward old. The lad says, “you are going home”. I reply, “I will when it is time to but that is not for a while”. “You are going home”, he repeats. He makes this statement at least ten times with a few variations. “You live in an apartment”, I am not sure if this is a statement or a question. “ I live in a house”, I say. “A big house”, he says. “No a medium house”, I say.
I do not know for sure what he wanted to hear me say. He repeats the statement again but adds that it will be midnight when I go home. I consider what the Lord would have me say when he finally says, “ I will never see you again”. This is a wise child. It is the kind of wisdom that comes with tragedy but I do not know what he has experienced. I tell him that for every one of us looking into the eyes of another it is a true statement that we may not see each other again. It was decades ago that I considered this for myself and made the decision to treat each meeting with another as if it would be my last. It has helped me with those who would be my enemies and those who are true friends. I touch people and encourage every chance I get.
Home is brotherhood with Jesus. Home is the presence of God our Father in every moment of our lives. Home is not a place alone but a place together with God. Home is being the family of God.
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.John 14:1-6
An hour before this encounter I drove by the house of a couple who is breaking up. The sight of the structure brought to mind the emptiness that a divorce brings to a once husband and wife. I also consider the profound insecurities experienced by any children they share. The dwelling place is not the home it is the relationship within the dwelling that makes it home.
I want to always be at home and if I look to the Lord each day that is exactly where I stay. An added blessing I have experienced is realizing that when you are at home with the Lord no matter where you are you find yourself at home with others. So much so that they might even wonder what home is and ask you about it.
