As we approach our Christmas Eve celebrations and the pinnacle of our Home for Christmas journey, I’m once again reminded of the uniqueness of home.
Any time I am away from my home, I miss it; and every time I return home after being away, I feel good. It always feels good to come home. In that space, we can experience a sense of joy & peace, and we find a greater appreciation for the significance of Dorothy’s statement in The Wizard of Oz: “There’s no place like home.”
I fundamentally agree with her, and I believe there are 3 primary things make our “home spaces” unique:
- Home is where we go deeper with God…where we know we are LOVED. At home, we find our regular places to encounter God and deepen our soul. It’s that cozy chair, the quiet study, a breakfast nook, the special spot on the floor and our church.
- Home is also where we find our significant relationships. These are the relationships that God uses to encourage us and to draw us to Himself. But there are also those relationships we have with others that He uses to draw them to Himself through us as we live LINKED.
- Finally, home is where we have been sent on mission. It is where we are stationed…posted…assigned. It is our place of duty. The place we are called to invest the vast majority of our time, talent and treasure in living SENT.
That is why there is no place like home.
Home with all its ups and downs, joys and trials, success and failures is the place where God, others and mission collide. It is the place we are best positioned to experience relationship as it should be.
What if we saw home as more than the place we live or the location we work? What if we understood the truth that home is our mission field, and there is no place like it?
Because when we understand that reality, we can play a significant part in others coming home…experiencing relationship as it should be.
