When you say the word "home", what image does your mental Etch-a-Sketch draw? Is it a certain house? Is it a certain town? "Home" is a complex notion for me...there are several variations based on particular stages in my life. My childhood home is Michigan. As a newlywed, home was east Tennessee. During the "baby-making" years, home was a SMALL town in south Georgia. Then we moved to a beautiful city in the foothills of the north Georgia mountains. Right now, home is Bamaham, deep in the heart of WayDownSouth. For the purpose of this entry, home is that SMALL town in south Georgia. Last week, the funeral of a friend's father called me home.
When I say SMALL town, I am not exaggerating. The nearest Tar-jay is nearly a two hour drive....that's right...TWO hours! It's such a small place that making the social scene is as simple as a trip to WalMart, combined with dinner at one of the two Mexican restaurants in town. Just to make sure you don't leave anyone out, throw in a trip to church on Sunday morning and you've got your bases covered. (As a side note...you need to be in church for other reasons that keeping up appearances...just so we're clear and you don't go around putting words in my mouth...WHICH, by the way, you'd have to cram in around my foot...it seems to stay there...but, I digress...back to the story!) I'd never made this drive from Bamaham. Driving along, it was amazing to watch how the topography changed almost instantly. Rolling hills to pancake flat in the blink of an eye. The final leg of the trip was a very familiar stretch of interstate...and one of the most boring you'll ever drive. It was nice to be able to turn of the GPS and just drive by memory.
Drive by memory...lots of memories came flooding over me as I made my way into town. Scenes of past events...things I hadn't thought about in years. I'm sure you'll be completely shocked (NOT)that I found myself tearing up and then a minute later, laughing out loud at the slide show playing in my brain. Right by myself...laughing out loud. People don't look at you as strangely anymore when you do this because so many people have those BlueTooth earpieces and it's just assumed that you're having a phone conversation. Walked into my friend's house, where I stayed during my visit...talk about HOME! This is where the idea of "home" really gets interesting. My friend, Kat, she and I talk a couple of times a week (Bless you, AT&T, for flat rate long distance!). I love being with her...in her pretty little house, with her beautiful children (we're talking magazine cover gorgeous) and her adorable (sort of Dennis the Menace all grown up) husband. But it's not about her house....or that SMALL town....it's about her. If the two of us where off in some foreign country, it would still be home...because of her. Because of her heart...because of the experiences we've shared. The older I get (gracefully, so...I hope), the more I am convinced that home isn't about a place. It's about people. It's about the time spent together and the knitting together of hearts. How else do you explain picking up with someone you haven't seen in a few years, but the connection between you is like no time has passed?
I made the social rounds...including a trip to the softball field and instead of church, I went to the funeral home...but I guess it count as both because this funeral home is now housed in the building that used to be my church...isn't that funny? Seeing various folks, purely by chance, was great. Lots of surprised faces and happy hugs. I loved it! The random run-ins are great....but nothing beats time spent with the home-folks. My SMALL town pastor and his wife are part of that group...the home folks. There aren't many people that I love like this...save my own parents and in-laws! Pastor says my name and smiles at me and my insides turn to mush! They really do! I've never met two people with their capacity to love and make a body feel at home. There's no secret to it...they LOVE Jesus and that love just oozes out of them. And let me tell you, it's a beautiful thing to feel that love flowing onto you!
It's heavenly moments spent with home-folks that make me wonder about Heaven. The nature of Heaven captivates our imaginations, doesn't it? Everyone has their own ideas about it....some more scriptural than others. As a Believer, I am certain that it will be a wondermous place...full of beauty and joy...no sorrow, no pain, no misery, no despair. We will be reunited with those who've gone on before us and it will seem like a great reunion. A great HOMEcoming, This world is not my home...as much as I am bound to it. I wasn't made for the limits of this lifetime. I was made to walk in the Eternal with my Abba...with my Heavenly Father...and the thought of that...more than all the visits to all my earthly hometowns, with all my earthly home-folks....feels like home.
When I say SMALL town, I am not exaggerating. The nearest Tar-jay is nearly a two hour drive....that's right...TWO hours! It's such a small place that making the social scene is as simple as a trip to WalMart, combined with dinner at one of the two Mexican restaurants in town. Just to make sure you don't leave anyone out, throw in a trip to church on Sunday morning and you've got your bases covered. (As a side note...you need to be in church for other reasons that keeping up appearances...just so we're clear and you don't go around putting words in my mouth...WHICH, by the way, you'd have to cram in around my foot...it seems to stay there...but, I digress...back to the story!) I'd never made this drive from Bamaham. Driving along, it was amazing to watch how the topography changed almost instantly. Rolling hills to pancake flat in the blink of an eye. The final leg of the trip was a very familiar stretch of interstate...and one of the most boring you'll ever drive. It was nice to be able to turn of the GPS and just drive by memory.
Drive by memory...lots of memories came flooding over me as I made my way into town. Scenes of past events...things I hadn't thought about in years. I'm sure you'll be completely shocked (NOT)that I found myself tearing up and then a minute later, laughing out loud at the slide show playing in my brain. Right by myself...laughing out loud. People don't look at you as strangely anymore when you do this because so many people have those BlueTooth earpieces and it's just assumed that you're having a phone conversation. Walked into my friend's house, where I stayed during my visit...talk about HOME! This is where the idea of "home" really gets interesting. My friend, Kat, she and I talk a couple of times a week (Bless you, AT&T, for flat rate long distance!). I love being with her...in her pretty little house, with her beautiful children (we're talking magazine cover gorgeous) and her adorable (sort of Dennis the Menace all grown up) husband. But it's not about her house....or that SMALL town....it's about her. If the two of us where off in some foreign country, it would still be home...because of her. Because of her heart...because of the experiences we've shared. The older I get (gracefully, so...I hope), the more I am convinced that home isn't about a place. It's about people. It's about the time spent together and the knitting together of hearts. How else do you explain picking up with someone you haven't seen in a few years, but the connection between you is like no time has passed?
I made the social rounds...including a trip to the softball field and instead of church, I went to the funeral home...but I guess it count as both because this funeral home is now housed in the building that used to be my church...isn't that funny? Seeing various folks, purely by chance, was great. Lots of surprised faces and happy hugs. I loved it! The random run-ins are great....but nothing beats time spent with the home-folks. My SMALL town pastor and his wife are part of that group...the home folks. There aren't many people that I love like this...save my own parents and in-laws! Pastor says my name and smiles at me and my insides turn to mush! They really do! I've never met two people with their capacity to love and make a body feel at home. There's no secret to it...they LOVE Jesus and that love just oozes out of them. And let me tell you, it's a beautiful thing to feel that love flowing onto you!
It's heavenly moments spent with home-folks that make me wonder about Heaven. The nature of Heaven captivates our imaginations, doesn't it? Everyone has their own ideas about it....some more scriptural than others. As a Believer, I am certain that it will be a wondermous place...full of beauty and joy...no sorrow, no pain, no misery, no despair. We will be reunited with those who've gone on before us and it will seem like a great reunion. A great HOMEcoming, This world is not my home...as much as I am bound to it. I wasn't made for the limits of this lifetime. I was made to walk in the Eternal with my Abba...with my Heavenly Father...and the thought of that...more than all the visits to all my earthly hometowns, with all my earthly home-folks....feels like home.
Michelle... I love your idea of home~~~ Glad you're "home" again, safe and sound, to B'ham! :)
ReplyDeleteTiffany~