That word has been on my mind a lot this week. Perhaps it's because my husband will be returning home in a few days. He'll be back home on Monday after about ten days on the other side of the world, in meetings in Japan.
Perhaps it's on my mind because we're planning to put this house, our home for the last eight years, back on the market this spring, in hopes of moving to a new house and making it our home.
We've moved a lot during our almost 42 years of marriage. It certainly wasn't what we had envisioned as we settled into our first home in West Columbia, SC all those years ago. Our lives have taken a different path than we expected, but I wouldn't trade our experiences for anything! All this moving around, all the people we've met and the places we've been......what a blessing! Although I must confess that all that moving, all the starting over and getting settled, and all the other stuff that goes along with moving.....that hasn't always been easy. But everywhere we've been, all the places we lived for however long we lived there, was home.
Al and I were talking about that not long ago, and he paid me one of the greatest compliments I've ever received. He said, "No matter where we've lived, you've always made it home."
I don't think he could have said a nicer thing to me. That's always been my goal. In all the places we've been, to make it home. We've lived in a lot of places. Big cities and small towns. In the north and in the south. In large houses and in small ones. But all those places have been home.
Home has not been about the size or the style or the location. It's been about a place to be comfortable. A place to welcome family and friends. A place of love and laughter, and occasionaly of tears. A place for family gatherings and Bible studies and fellowships. All that, and more, is part of this place we call home.
I'm thankful for all the places we have called home. I'm thankful for the one I have shared home with. Thankful for all the family and friends that have graced our home. So very thankful.
Home. What a beautiful word!
"Unless the LORD builds the house, they who build it labor in vain." (Psalm 127:1 ESV)
I remember when Tony and I sold our first home. I cried and cried and we almost didn't go through with it because I couldn't envision living in any other house but that one. I didn't sleep all that night, and Tony told me the next morning that he would call the realtor and tell her we couldn't go through with it. I stayed in deep thought all that morning and called Tony and told him we would go through with our dream of owning a small farm because anyplace that had he and I was not a house but a HOME.
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