Home

There usually comes a time, even when you are having a great holiday, whether long or short, you just feel like 'getting home', and nothing can shift the feeling. I have felt it on many occasions, and invariably the feeling only settles when I actually get to rest in my own place. My own chair. My own bed. My own family and friends. This is no reflection on the place you had been staying, or even the folks you spent your vacation with. It's an unshakeable and unmistakeable feeling. An itch that has to be scratched.

The first time the words truly hit home to me was from the lips of a great Christian man. A Godly example, and the greatest earthly influence on my life. In later life, Dad suffered from Parkinson's Disease, and took his illness with grace. He didn't grumble or complain about his lot, or ask us, or God, why this had fallen to him. However, there came a point when he had his eyes firmly fixed above, and said to me, 'I just want to go home'. Naively, and in my human thinking, I started to explain why he couldn't go home yet, after all, his treatment had not been completed. With a wry smile, tinged with a mixture of anticipation and yet sadness, he repeated with all the strength he could summon, "No, I want to go HOME"! There was a difference. It was etched on his face. I knew instinctively what he meant, and yes, he is really home now.

I have heard those same words since then, and have known what they meant, first time. Maybe you have too. Always spoken by Saints of God who can feel the tug of a loving God, saying to them, unmistakeably and personally; “It's time to come Home now my child.” My own prayer is that I will have enough grace to walk this life in humility, with all the ups and downs allotted, and still be able to say, "I want to go Home" when that unmistakeable tug pulls at my Spirit. Strangely, even from this vantage point, on this side of heaven, and with no desire for it to be soon, it does not strike me with fear. On the contrary, the concept of a waiting Heaven, with all the glorious benefits to be gained, can only be good. I acknowledge our Pastor's teaching on this truth, and I know it is a subject close to his heart too. In the meantime, slowly and surely, the words "Live Ready" take on more and more meaning!

The question is simple: “Where is your Home”?

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Matt 6:20-21 (KJV)