As one who spends an inordinate amount of time traveling, I should be in a position to comment in the value and role of having a home. It is easy to fall into a clich?, talking about the flowerily state of life and home, yet I find my own experience something far more complex. Home is something that is real, gritty, wonderful, complex, demanding, rewarding, and beautiful.
Being on the road a lot provide me with the opportunity to see home in contrast with life outside and away. I see spouses who are perpetually angry at each other and life. I watch as kids signal their eagerness to escape the hell that they know as home. I watch and know that for them it would be “better to live in a tent in the wild than with a cross and petulant spouse.” (Proverbs 21.19) Yet this is not what I know as home and family.
I watch as men and women flirt with the boundaries of relationships, implicitly devaluing their family ties as well as the value they place on their soul. I wonder aloud if they understand the price that they are paying for seconds of diversion or excitement. I can only wonder at the price that their actions place on the thing they call “home”.
In contrast I find myself the third party as two obvious friends and lovers share the events of the day. They talk about people, analyze the issues, and develop common solutions that express their shared values and priorities. I find myself encouraged and energized as two sit with me hand in hand facing life together regardless of the odd, events, and disasters.
I come to the place I call home and discover again how precious and valuable the people and relationships in this place are to me. I find myself lifted up, encouraged, and nurtured when I am down. I come and I briefly taste what it will be like when you and I come to our home of home and meet our Father God; stunning, awesome, and wonderful.
