My Home

"You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, so it's all right."

Maya Angelou

"They are the happiest, be they king or peasant, who find peace in their homes."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Where thou art, that is home."

Emily Dickinson

"Be grateful for the home you have, knowing that at this moment, all you have is all you need."

Sarah Ban Breathnach

"Home is where the heart is."

Pliny The Elder

"Home is not around the hearth, it is within the heart.  Any worthwhile pilgrimage brings us home,

and so does any distant voyage for the sake of love."
Donald Masterson

"Home -- that blessed word, which opens to the human heart the most perfect glimpse of Heaven, and helps to carry it thither, as on an angel's wings."

Lydia M. Child

Joy or sadness, peace or pain, laughter or silence can all take place in the home.  Walls can be crumbling down, cockroaches invading, or rooms filled with items that seems to be for museum viewing only and we call these places home.  I no longer know how to define my earthly home.  Home seems to be where I rest my head at night, or where my heart is.  Home is with my parents, but home is also with the nations that I love.  I have a home in the Netherlands, and in the Philippines, and in Uganda.  There are houses of friends that make me feel at home as soon as I walk in, and I'm so very grateful. 

On Sunday morning, I loaded up the van with a bunch of friends that I was camping with and drove over to the Drumhill pavilion for an outdoor church service.  The campground I was staying at graciously allowed a local church to come in and lead a wonderful service.  The pastor spoke of home through the perspective of my favourite Psalm.

     15 The life of mortals is like grass,

           they flourish like a flower of the field;

     16 the wind blows over it and it is gone,

          and its place remembers it no more.

     17 But from everlasting to everlasting

          the LORD’s love is with those who fear him,

          and his righteousness with their children’s children—

     18 with those who keep his covenant

          and remember to obey his precepts.

                             Psalm 103

The birds swooped around the pastor's head, collecting in the rafters above, as the microphone tried to carry the preacher's words to the large crowd.  God has given us a home in glory land, the things of this earth will fade away.  I kept thinking back to that garage sale that I just had.  My childhood home will never be the same.  My parents are praying about moving to a new place... so all I can do is grasp on to the home that I have in Jesus - for His love is everlasting and my place of peace is riding in His palm.