Sunday Message

home for the holidays...

Home

"I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself..."                                              -Maya Angelou

"Is it time to go home yet?  I keep clicking these damn shoes, but nothing happens..." -Robin Hecht

There's no place like home for the holidays.  So the song states.  I heartily agree.  Especially when there is enhanced clarity about what "home" means...above and beyond a romanticized word or notion in a popular Christmas song.

So, what does the word "home" mean to you?  How do you define it? 

H-O-M-E.

Is it a location?  A building? A dot on a map?  An address, a town or city?   A state?  A state of mind?  Is it where you were born, where you grew up, or where you have come to?  Is it where your heart is?  Is it where you feel comfortable and secure, or where you experience challenges?  Does home mean family?  Friends?  Both?  Is home another word for relationship?  Does it represent stability or uncertainty?  Is home what you long for, or where you already live?

As I see it, the answer is pretty much yes. 

YES.  To all of the above.

Unless home is defined as a residence of permanent stagnancy,  it is impossible for us to fully journey through life without experiencing on some level an ever broadening understanding of home.  And perhaps that is the purpose and meaning of life: arriving home, wherever we are.

The mystic Meister Eckhart said, "God is at home.  It is we who have gone for a walk."

According to the Christmas Story, Mary and Joseph went for a walk from their familiar home in Nazareth all the way to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born in a manger in a stable under a shining star.  I like to think that that night in those circumstances in that place beneath that star, Joseph and Mary felt like they were at home, spiritually, if not physically.   Jesus certainly was at home, wrapped in swaddling clothes in that holy, humble place of His birth.  There's a message for us.  Though Jesus traveled to many places throughout His life, He never really strayed far from home.

He was born at home, lived at home, and died at home.  Because He was at home in His awareness of His Oneness with God.

It's not the Christmas Story as written in the Gospel of Luke, but I think it's connected and I think Dorothy in the Land of Oz indeed had it right.  There's no place like home, click, click.  There's no place like home.  And you're already there, whether you know it or not.  Click click.