You Have Been Chosen
Friends,
Maybe it was the trip back to East Texas for the 4th but home has been on my heart. I remember when I was in college the first time standing in my parent’s kitchen that I said that it was time I headed home…to Austin. My mother did not appreciate this word choice. In a way she was right–as moms are always. My parents don’t live in that house anymore and where they live now has never been my address but they make it feel like home. My wife and kids have the same affect on brick and wood because they are there: I am home.
As the years have gone by I have come to realize that my sense of home is wrapped up meals, smells, people, communities and winding roads through 60 foot pine trees among other things.
Perhaps most unexpected is that I find myself at times feeling homesick for places that don’t even exist anymore and for the company of people who have long since gone on to glory. It’s not just the past that invades my notions of home. As CS Lewis keenly observed when faced with beauty I am at times aware of an ache for a land I have not yet visited, for the land this world would be if it where healed and whole.
Part of the ache for home is looking for a place to belong. This is one of the primary and deepest callings of the church. To be a bridge for those in search of home. We have been made a people by God’s mercy. We belong. We have been chosen to give witness that all those who have wandered in darkness looking for home are invited into the light. All that are homesick and weary are welcome and belong.
Let us continue toward home friends and may we in word and deed invite others to join us.
Blessings,
Pastor Ben