Home

On Wednesday I will be going home again, for the second time since August.  

Last time I said the word "home", I meant I was going to Canada, the place where our families live and our passports were issued.  This time when I say "home" I mean that I'm going back to Guatemala, where we have a house full of our belongings and a room-full of kids waiting for us to teach Sunday school.  Both places feel like "home", and then again, neither does.  

I think I understand that verse in the Bible a little better now-- y'know, the one about how are citizenship is in Heaven with God.  I find comfort in the thought that there is a day coming when I will really be home, and it will feel like home, and I will stay there forever and ever.  

As our time at our Canadian home comes to a close I am overwhelmed by the love and generosity that has been poured out upon us.  It's been a time of adjustment welcoming new family members, and a time of enriching old relationships.  Our needs have been great, but greater still is the ability of God to provide in every way.  My heart is strengthened by the encouragement of our family and friends.  I am so thankful to have had this time in Canada.  So very, deeply, thankful.  

I face our imminent departure for our Guatemalan home with hope and even some eagerness.  Leaving our family in Canada is always hard for me, but I feel confident that God is with us, and we are walking in His will.  To walk in obedience to the One who loves me most, for me, must always be enough...even when it's hard to say goodbye.  

I'm looking forward to being in my own home again, in Guatemala, and waking to sunshine and avocados falling on the roof.  I'm excited to buy a papaya at the market and show the Sunday school kids the new puppets.  In not too long it will be time to decorate for Christmas, and in January we will start home-school grade 1 with Z!  So much to look forward to, and yet it's still hard to leave one home for the other.  

In all these bitter-sweet emotions I am struck with a deep gratefulness to God, that I have not one, but two places on this earth to call home.  Two places where I am know and loved.  I am blessed beyond measure.  

And so in the midst of the pain of another goodbye, I reach for my Father's hand, and He leads me home.

"All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them."

 

      -Hebrews 11:13-16