Home

What is home? This past week I've been greeted with the words: "Welcome home!!!" in three different locations. And I know in my heart that each of these is my home. And yet none of them are. I'm both confused and certain, unsettled and excited about home and what it means. Home is such a special concept. It's where my soul is welcomed and I know I belong. And ultimately I'm not going to find that in its perfection here on earth. But the reason I have so many homes is that there are places on this earth where I feel the welcome deeply and I know that this is indeed where I belong for this time. This stirs the longing inside me for my true home and brings so much joy. Because if home can feel this good here, how much better will it feel there?! I guess this is just turning into a journal of how all my travels have made me feel. But today I felt it was worth saying. I guess that's what this blog started off as anyways: travels. Oh how interrelated the concepts of travel and home are. I guess all I'm really saying is that going to Wheaton was going home. There are so many people who I truly know and who truly know me, people I would do anything for and know I can count on to do the same. Wheaton is the place where I grew up, I know it like the back of my hand. I don't need my google maps app there. :)  It will always hold a piece of my heart, especially as long as so many of my treasured loved ones live there. I rejoiced to be there and I left feeling blessed and content. I had been welcomed and loved. God revealed himself to me and spoke to me of heaven in relationships and the familiarity of that which my spirit knows and recognizes. But I arrived home in Denver and knew again that that's what it was. Home.  I saw my already beloved mountains that speak daily of his majesty and create a deep excitement to see how heaven could be more beautiful than this. I drove on the roads that are becoming familiar, hiked on a gorgeous path, and sat with a friend as we soaked in Gods presence here in our new home.  And I resonated with the Philip Phillips lyrics that God has been speaking to me these past few weeks "just know you're not alone cause I'm gonna make this place your home." But tonight I arrived in Pepperell, MA, a town that has long been near to my heart, and was again welcomed home. This place always amazes me. First, it's the place where my dads side of the family normally gathers for holidays so it holds a lot of memories with a lot of very special people who I love deeply. But it's even more. I always know I have a home here. There are several homes growing up where I learned how to care for others and be a good hostess. But this home was where that lesson of true hospitality no matter what that means was driven home most deeply. This is also the place I picture when I picture my ideal morning quiet time with God. Heaven sometimes looks to me like Auntie Sue and Uncle Bills back porch, sipping a cup of coffee, a dog or two at my feet, watching the sun rise over the beautiful fields. These three places- they are home. Not just because of what they are to me here, but because of the deep longing they awaken for that true home when all the pieces of my very separate homes can be pulled together in the place that my soul truly hungers for when I seek home. And until then, I rejoice that I can be in three of my beautiful homes in one week. Praise God for airplanes! So much joy.