When I left home to go to attend my freshman year of college, I was pumped. I was leaving my smaller world and moving into a wider reality of independance. It was the great adventure of my life!

… and after a month at college, five hundred miles away from my parents, my brother, and my sister, I was so homesick that I almost couldn’t stand it. The adventure hadn’t soured or gone bad. School wasn’t a terrible experience; in fact, I was rather enjoying it. I had made a few friends, could sleep and eat on my own schedule (for the most part), and the classes were actually interesting. But I really missed my own home, my own bed, and my own family.

By Thanksgiving I had found someone at my college who lived in the Chicago area and who was going home for the holiday. I begged a ride, and appeared on the doorstep of my home on the day before Turkey Day.

It was so wonderful. I got out of my friend’s car, walked up to the front door of my home, opened the door, and there was my mother and father, my sister and brother, and a great welcome from them all. And the Thanksgiving dinner was, I’m sure, the best I’d had for a long time, because it was at home.

As the years passed, there were other Thanksgiving dinners at home, but I think none were as important to me as that first one after I had been away from home for a while. And yet, there is still that desire for “coming home”. It’s been 35 years since I begged that ride home as a college freshman, but to remember the feeling of coming home then still brings tears to my eyes. I have a longing for home – but I can’t get there anymore by hitching a ride. How do I achieve this goal?

I have learned that what I am truly longing for is that real home, that home I will have with my Father in heaven. The love and togetherness I remember from those visits back to home was just a reflection of that reunion I will have in heaven. It comes back to that desire for Joy that I discussed here.

Chris Rice again gets a chance to shine here, with another song from the Run The Earth, Watch The Sky album. Circle Up is the first of three songs I want to use to illustrate this reunion coming in heaven, for those who have accepted the salvation that Jesus offers.

Revelation 21:14 says, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Hear the hum of angel curiosity
The children of the Lord are gathering
Finally the day we’ve all been dreaming of
Called up forever in His love 

Circle up, circle up around the throne
Old and young saints of every history
Great and small angels all and seraphim
Grab a hand, twirl a dance,
Circle up and worship Him
Grab a hand, twirl a dance
Circle up and worship Him

Hear the thunder of unfolding wings
Feel the mighty wind their beating brings
Bring your grateful tears and flood the floor
Rise up and worship like a storm

Circle up, circle up around the throne
Old and young saints of every history
Great and small angels all and seraphim
Grab a hand, twirl a dance
Circle up and worship Him
Grab a hand, twirl a dance
Circle up and worship Him

Now hear His golden voice above it all
He’s saying, “This tear is the last to fall”
A few simple words and another storm He calms
Invites us all into his arms!

Circle up, circle up around the throne
Old and young saints of every history
Great and small, angels all and seraphim
Grab a hand, twirl a dance
Circle up, and worship Him