Featured song: Home by Michael Card, from his 1994 album, poiema.

My first semester of college was exciting to me. It was an adventure in which I was eager to participate. It was to be on my own, to be an “adult.” Yet, by the time a month had passed, I was so homesick I could barely stand it. Home was over 500 miles away; a weekend visit was out of the question. When an opportunity arose for me to share a ride home for Thanksgiving, I jumped at the chance. And that Thanksgiving is possibly the most memorable one of my life, but not because of any details of it. Honestly, I cannot recall anything specific about it other than the fact that I was there. But the feeling I associate with that event is one of warmth, welcome, and the joy in just being home.

As we have just left the holiday of Thanksgiving and are now into the official Christmas season, I was thinking about what it is that makes this a season of joy and warmth for some, and one of dread and anxiety for others.

The basis for this joy seems to be home, and my connection to it. My home was a pleasant place, my family was loving. We had conflicts at times, but the overall feeling I have of my home life was positive, warm, and a good memory.

It is not a matter of how wealthy your family was. My mother’s family had little in terms of money or possessions, and her parents were strict. Yet in their lack, the holidays she experienced were amongst her favorite memories.

Some people don’t have a positive home background. Their parents were neglectful, or abusive, or skewed their favor toward a sibling. This made childhood a continuing pain, and not a pleasant place to seek out in memory. As a result, there is no warmth in thinking about past holiday seasons.

For all people, whether home life was good, indifferent, or bad, there is still that desire to have a good and warm experience at holidays. And when we do try for the desired “happy holidays”, be it at Thanksgiving or Christmas or New Year’s Eve, it often falls short of our expectations. It doesn’t matter whether we are trying to recapture the joys of the holidays of our childhood, or trying to create the joy that was not there when we were young; it just doesn’t, it can’t live up to the ideal.

Why is this? Are our expectations too high? Are they unrealistic? True, some of our desires are heavily colored by culture, by the many movies and TV specials we’ve seen as we grew up. But regardless of what it is that contributes to any positive attitude toward the season we may have, behind it all is a longing for that home that is warm and loving and welcoming. I long for the home where everyone shows love to each other, where nobody is sick or in pain or distressed, where I am just grateful for the time I can spend in the presence of those I love. Or better still, to come home and find those friends and family that I’ve lost, waiting to greet me and spend time together. In this dream, it doesn’t even matter whether or not I receive any presents; just being in this home is the only gift I want.

What we are really longing for in our preparations and celebrations is for Heaven itself. What we have loved about home (or dreamed about for that perfect home) and the positive feelings associated with that home is the glimpse of heaven that home provides.

In today’s song, Michael Card expresses some of these feelings about home, both his connection with his home through the one who loves him and welcomes him there, and in thinking about that permanent home that we who love the Lord Jesus will some day have.

Home is a comfort, and home is a light
A place to leave the darkness outside
Home is a peaceful and ever-full feeling
A place where a soul safely hides

And being at home should remind you that still
There’s a place that’s prepared just for you
And I think my home is just heaven’s reflection
As long as my home’s here with you

Home is where someone is waiting and loving
And happy to see you again
That half of your heart that somebody else treasures
The one who’s your forever friend

But it seems that He’s told me, the life that He showed me
Is life mostly spent on the road
But when the world’s empty jar has done all of its harm
I know that His love waits for me in your arms

Cause home is a comfort, and home is a light
A place to leave the darkness outside
Home is a peaceful and ever-full feeling
A place where a soul safely hides

And being at home should remind you that still
There’s a place that’s prepared just for you
And I think my home is just heaven’s reflection
As long as my home’s here with you

And being at home should remind you that still
There’s a place that’s prepared just for you
And I think my home is just heaven’s reflection
As long as my home’s here with you

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