Last week, my husband and I took a last-minute trip up north to Door County. It is my favorite place to visit, to sit and contemplate. My husband knows that and could read the signs that I needed a time out by the water with a view. Yes, I know I am blessed. We had an amazing trip, a safe trip, a wonderful period of meaningful conversations and sharing and great food. But both of us breathed a sigh of thanksgiving as we drove up our drive into our garage. Coming home was the perfect ending.
As I gave thanks to the LORD for our safe travel, good moments, and time together, I realized that our life’s journey is meant to be like that. We are to fill it with good times, quiet times, times of prayer, times with others, but our true joy will really only come when we reach our “perfect ending,” home. And our “home” is where we come from, our “home” is with the LORD, in the LORD, life in abundance.
That longing within us that can be satisfied only temporarily tells us that what we long for is more permanent, life in abundance with our LORD. If we are willing to work so hard here, this side of the sod, for fleeting joy, how much harder should we be willing to strive for lasting happiness, for joy that will never fade, for life with, in and through our LORD?
Making it home isn’t accidental. Coming home requires our efforts, our navigating the world in which we live with loving kindness, faithfulness, vigilance. Making it home requires more than we alone can manage. Making it home requires reliance and humble dependence upon the LORD for guidance, for grace, for the love that will inform our journey, that will conform our very person to the ones we were created to be, and that will transform us into the children of the Father Almighty, disciples of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and temples of the Spirit.
Are we up to it? Are we up for it? Are we convinced to our core that home in the LORD is where we desire to be for all eternity? If we don’t set our sights on our destination, however will we make it?
It was a short trip, but it was a worthwhile trip. It reminded me of the mystery at the heart of who I am and the purpose of my life – to make my way into the mystery with the help of the LORD. This is my journey; this isn’t my forever home.
This morning, I am rested and ready for the next leg of my journey. I have my maps (the scriptures, the creed), I have my GPS (the Holy Spirit), I have my companions (my loved ones and those whom the LORD sends to journey with me and whom I will come to love), I have my plans for nourishment along the way (times of prayer), and I know my destination.
I pray that all of us are ready for the journey.
Until tomorrow, let us all love well.
Comments