Categories
Heaven

The Warmth Of Home

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

familyMy 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

poiema, 1994, Michael Card [iframe http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=gregrejoy-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B000TEERRY&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr 120 240]

Categories
Jesus Life

A Home

If you’ve ever felt like you were just going through the motions of life, trying to make everyone think you were just fine, when inside you were dying, this song is for you. It reminds me that Jesus knows how I feel, that He’s been there already, and He has the solution: To give Him your burden, your struggle, your pain, and let Him carry it for you. In exchange, He gives you security, safety, and peace. What better cure could there be to the problems of life?

Photo credit--Will Hybrid, Flickr
Photo credit--Will Hybrid, Flickr

From Don Francisco’s 1981 album The Traveler, listen to his beautiful song, Give Your Heart A Home.

I hear your hollow laughter
Your sighs of secret pain
Pretending and inventing
Just to hide your shame
Plastic smiles and faces
Blinkin’ back the tears
Empty friends and places
All magnify your fears

If you’re tired and weary,
Weak and heavy laden
I can understand how
It feels to be alone
I will take your burden,
If you’ll let Me love you,
Wrap My arms around you,
Give your heart a home

It hurts to watch you struggle
And try so hard to win
But trade your precious birthright
For candy-coated sin
Wasting precious moments
Restless and confused
Building up defenses
For fear that you’ll be used

If you’re tired and weary,
Weak and heavy laden
I can understand how
It feels to be alone
I will take your burden,
If you’ll let Me love you,
Wrap My arms around you,
Give your heart a home

Take My yoke upon you
And walk here by My side
Let Me heal your heartaches,
Dry the tears you’ve cried
Never will I leave you,
Never turn away
Keep you through the darkness
Lead you through the day

If you’re tired and weary,
Weak and heavy laden
I can understand how
It feels to be alone
I will take your burden,
If you’ll let Me love you,
Wrap My arms around you,
Give your heart a home

Wrap My arms around you,
Give your heart a home

The Traveler, Don Francisco, 1981 You can get a copy of this album from         

Don Francisco’s web site here. Look for

“Our Oldies”.

Categories
Heaven

Home

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

Run The Earth, Watch The Sky, Chris Rice 2003