Home for Christmas?

Here in central Iowa we are preparing for our first major snowstorm of the year. If I don't have anywhere I need to be, I just love a good snowstorm. I think it's because it causes us to slow down or sometimes literally stop and take a break from the busyness of life. There is also something about the stillness of the falling snow that no words can accurately describe.

As beautiful as it may be, I worry about my family members and others who are traveling this weekend. With this being the weekend before Christmas, there are many people on the roads and sitting in airports trying to get home to celebrate the holidays with their loved ones. The eight years we lived in North Carolina we always drove the 950 miles to come home for Christmas. We couldn't image Christmas celebrations without being with our families. What is it about "home?"

When my husband and I called a family meeting to tell our three children we were moving from Iowa, the only home they had ever known, to North Carolina, I remember saying to them, "Home is wherever we are together." I'm not exactly sure what I meant by that but I thought it sounded good as I tried to reassure our children who were 13, 11, and 8 that this major life change would be just fine.

As it turned out, the move was a very good thing for our family and I do believe there is some truth to my words of comfort to our children. Home is more about who you’re with than the physical place that you are in. I’m finding even more truth to these words as we prepare for yet another move. We felt very much “at home” in North Carolina when we celebrated Thanksgiving, Easter and other holidays with our neighbors and friends from church.

So what about those that will not be home for Christmas? In 2007, Josh Groban released his Noel album with “I’ll be Home for Christmas” that features soldiers speaking greetings to their family members. Six years later, that song still brings tears to my eyes for all of those soldiers and families that will be apart during the holidays. I also find myself thinking of those whose home life is anything but pleasant. There are people that are alone with no families, some who are physically or emotionally abused by their families and some that can only be described as dysfunctional. For these people, home can be a painful word and Christmas is anything but a joyous celebration.

As we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, Emmanuel, it is my prayer that people will know and be assured that God is with us, the literal meaning of Emmanuel. Since we are all created in God’s image, there is a longing and desire to return home to God. So on this Christmas, even though some people will not be able to physically be home with their loved ones, we are all able to be home with God, our Father and creator. Through God’s gift of a baby born to Mary, we are able to have a personal and intimate relationship with God. God has come to dwell among us and to bring us home. Will you be home for Christmas?