Homecoming

I just love “homecomings”! I am not referring to those football or basketball games where folks return to their Alma Maters and see old classmates. Those are good and fun but not nearly as good as what I am about to describe. I have had 3 of my children serving in missions on the other side of the world for the past four months. One was in Freetown, Sierra Leone and the other two were in Santiago, Chile. They left a day apart and returned a day apart. Thus, in the past 36 hours I have had the privilege of celebrating two homecomings! The month of December at the Wright household has NOT been counted in “how many days ‘till Christmas” but rather “how many days until Zach, Ashley, and Erik come home”. So…I have tried to do the things I needed to do in the past week or so but always keeping an eye on the day and time. I continually prayed for their safe travel and for everything to be on time with no weather delays, etc… I started buying the groceries, washing anything that needed freshening up, and doing anything I thought might “get ready” for the big day. Zach and Ashley arrived first at 8:00 a.m. this past Tuesday. That meant driving through rush hour traffic to get to the gate on time. Fortunately for the other drivers on the road that morning, my husband drove. I fear that if I had driven and someone had gotten in my way that “seeing the love of Christ” might not have been the first thing the other driver would have noticed! That sounds terrible to say but I know there are lots of moms out there who certainly understand! We made it on time and all was well except the plane was there but we waited and waited and waited and they still did not come. They have security guards now that keep you from going to the gate, but I confess that if five more minutes had passed I think I could have taken them and made it to the gate before they caught up with me to stop me! Fortunately for everyone involved, we finally saw them coming around the corner. Then the real celebration started! Hugs, tears, laughter, everyone talking at once – chaos at its finest was the accurate description of the scene.

Next day, thirty-six hours later Erik is due to arrive. We had a production rehearsal (final rehearsal before performance - so this is a really big deal) that was scheduled to be over at 8:45 p.m. His plan was due at 8:50 p.m. and the airport was 40 minutes away. We stayed until the last possible moment. Then the Wright gang ended up coming to the airport in three different vehicles leaving at various moments apart as soon as they could be dismissed. We all made it on time – bailing out of vehicles and leaving the driver to fend for himself as to parking and even money to park! And again…we waited and waited and waited. Some crazy “arrival / departure monitor screen” had the nerve to say the plane was not due in until 10:00 p.m. but another one said it had landed. That was a little confusing and once again thoughts of taking on security began to form in my head. However, Erik texted me to say the plane had landed and he would be there soon. Once again, jail time was averted! The scene from the previous day was repeated – joy, excitement, tears, love, laughter, and all around craziness! True celebration if there ever was a celebration!

I want to bed last night with my heart so full of gratitude and love. There was total and complete joy at seeing my children HOME! This morning I was reminded that what I experienced was just a small taste of what our Heavenly Father feels when one of his children comes home. In fact, there is a great story in Luke 15 about this very thing. This particular son did not leave home to go on the mission field but rather wanted to go out and experience all of the things he thought he was missing out on. So he takes his inheritance and goes to a distant country. The scripture tells us that he squandered his wealth on “wild living”. Then there was a famine. (This is a “by the way” but isn’t it interesting that a famine of the soul usually occurs after we decide life on the wild side is worth trying.) The son got so hungry that he did things he never would have thought he would do. But the story does not end there. Luke 15:17-19, “when he came to his senses…he said, I will set out and go back to my father…I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men”. Simply put, he wanted to go home but did not think he could be anything more than a servant. My favorite part of the story comes next. V.20 “But while he (the son) was still a long way off his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” Then they celebrated and threw a big party! While my children were gone for different reasons than the one in the parable, the homecoming was still very similar. Just like me, the father was watching and waiting and counting the moments and started running when only a speck of them became visible. Then the joy and the party and the gratitude and the chaos began and continued for a long time.

Christmas is the best time for homecomings! John tells us “The Word (Jesus) became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” The big “why did He do this” is so that we could go home. Without Jesus, we had no way to make that possible. He gave us the gift in Himself for us to be able to go home. Often the struggle for mankind to accept this simple idea usually takes on one of two issues. The first says, I can get my act together enough and be good enough and do enough good stuff to be able to go home on my own merit.” The other says, “I have done too much bad stuff and therefore I will never be worthy of getting to go home.” Neither of those two ideas is right or true. We can never be good enough to earn it by ourselves nor can we ever be bad enough to be beyond help or hope. So…this Christmas come home! Don’t worry about where you have been and what you have done or if you deserve anything. Just come home. The Father is standing on the front porch looking and watching and waiting and ready to welcome you HOME! He is ready for a BIG party and…He has His running shoes on!