Going Home

Yet we are courageous, and we would rather leave the body and go
home to the Lord.  2 Corinthians 5:8

Sorry I missed everyone last Thursday…after 16 months of Thursday posts, it felt strange not putting one up….it just didn’t feel like Thursday!  I flew to Kansas for a couple days and it was great to “go home” and Thursday night it was also great to “come home”…I’m so blessed to have two great homes! 
 
The trip was terrific! I had a chance to speak at a youth leadership conference which was a blast!  One of the guests in the audience that day was my favorite high school teacher…I’m sure everyone thought we looked EXACTLY the way we did back in 1982!  I had a chance to visit my old high
school and surprise three former classmates who all work in the school.  I got to visit with best friends, old friends, new friends and family…it was perfect!  As wonderful as it was, coming home was even better.  I was met at the airport with a giant hug from my lovely daughter and outside was my handsome husband ready to take my bag, kiss my cheek and haul me home. The house was all in order and it’s a great feeling to be welcomed home with a huge squeeze from a teenage son who isn’t even hungry! 
Then if that wasn’t enough, Friday morning the hugs, high fives, smiles
and hello’s from my little lovelies made me feel like the luckiest woman
alive!


As I curled into bed Friday night I was overcome with the thought of coming home and I realized that the warm feelings in my heart as I replayed the events of the past few days would absolutely pale in comparison to the joy
and warmth Christ will feel when He welcomes us home! I think it’s so easy to settle in to the comforts of our home and our life here on earth and not even realize this is nothing compared to the welcome home we were created to receive.  It took a lot of work to get ready to leave my little lovelies.  First graders do something different every 10 minutes so the plans and the collection of “stuff and supplies” that had to be organized and left behind
for the substitute teacher was almost enough to convince me to stay here.  But…God is good, it all got done and he sent a spectacular woman to substitute so I could go on my way.  Going home to heaven is a little like that I think!  It takes a lot of work to get ready.  We just can’t wake up one morning and say…hey I think I’ll go to heaven! It’s a trip that takes lots of planning and preparation but it’s so worth it!

I spent a day with my beautiful Aunt Mary.  She has stage 4 cancer so it was a day of every emotion!  We were talking about the things that make home and family and life on earth great.  The book of Revelation describes heaven as something so much more magnificent than earth. I told her making that
correlation in our head and our heart would have been as hard as Henry Ford looking so proudly at his Model-T and trying to compare it to a modern day Cadillac…the differences are so drastic his mind simply wouldn’t have been able to comprehend it.  

It’s been said that home is where the heart is…it is a wise thing to check your heart and make sure it is in the presence of God because we don’t
want to miss out on the greatest “Welcome Home” party ever…the one we will receive in heaven.  Don’t forget to spend time each day getting ready for that party.

A Seed To Plant:  Do something special to welcome home the people you share your home with.  If you live alone, do something to welcome home a neighbor.  Remind them it’s just a sample of the joy that awaits as we prepare for our heavenly welcome home.

Blessings on your day!