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a homecoming (of sorts)

A lovely note left for me by my office mates

We're 4 days into being back in Aberdeen. Before we left for Christmas in Houston, Joy very thoughtfully asked if leaving Houston would be harder this time. I hadn't really stopped to think about the possibility that leaving Houston a second time would harder than the first time, but there was some good truth in that question.

When we left in September we left knowing that we would definitely be back at Christmas, a mere 3 months away (I even had a countdown app going). I left at least with the naive expectation that I expect many college students, and many people who are really moving away from home for the first time, leave with- that things will somehow slow down and not really change that much. That life where you leave it won't go on without you there. And I realize that that thought is incredibly egotistical and not sustainable at all because life obviously goes on with people moving in and out of our lives all the time, but some part of me just has a hard time imagining my life in Houston without me in it.

When we left Houston on Sunday evening we left without a definite return date. There are vague plans to return this summer, but nothing as definite as Christmas and even those dates are more than twice as far away as this break was. So we left home to come home and I was sitting on the incredibly long plan ride, listening to something on my iPod- it hit me- I don't know where home is anymore.

Not with any certainty anyways. Jack is certain Houston is home. He quickly corrects me when I start referring to Aberdeen as home. I'm almost positive if we never lived in Houston again, forty years from now Houston would still be home, and within the 610 loop at that. Houston has been home for most of my life, although the first 7 years were in Oklahoma and in the last 6 years 3 have been in Waco and part of one in Scotland so maybe I'm just feeling disconnected from anyplace.

Houston is where our family and the majority of our friends are. It's where our soon to be first niece is going to be (yay!!). But we have extended family throughout Texas and Oklahoma and if we're talking about friends we're going to have to spread out across not only the state but across the country and globe at this point. Almost all of the people I've had the longest friendships with are in Texas (sorry Jessica) but almost all of the people I've formed the quickest friendships with are in Scotland and the people I have the deepest ones are spread across the board. My cats are in Houston- so maybe Houston is winning a bit in that category.

Elizabeth gave me some very apt lithographs for Christmas. They're prints of Houston, Waco, and Aberdeen- all recognizable spots for someone who has spent any significant amount of time living there. A nice reminder of the places that I've left part of my heart in.

So we've come home (I think). At least to where home is for the moment, although I'm divided on whether or not this is actually home. Or if we've just left home to come back to Scotland. Both Houston and Aberdeen were/are miserably cold so there's not much love lost on the weather currently.

Below was my contribution to the South Main Advent Book. I meant to put it up on December 23 when it appeared in the book, but between jet lag and the Christmas holidays that obviously didn't happen. I wrote it right after we got here in September so these thoughts have been very much on my mind for awhile now.


Homecoming


And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.- John 14:3

My mom listens to Christmas music year long and has for as long as I can remember. James Taylor crooning, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” invokes an image of Christmas and the gathering of friends and families, which has sparked an entire genre of film, centered on the premise of people just trying to make it home for the holidays. This will be my first Christmas to actually come home from afar, and as I sit in a flat on the other side of the world, I’m already thinking about this homecoming.

But what we experience at Christmas isn’t a homecoming event. God didn’t come home. The surprise of Christmas is that God did exactly the opposite. Christ is born far from home. We lose sight of the purpose of Christmas when we lose sight of this dramatic reversal. The message of the scriptures is not that we come home, but that we journey afar trying to find our home. Abraham leaves home and family on a promise.  Ruth leaves home because of familial devotion. Elijah leaves home with a prophecy. Paul leaves home after a revelation. God leaves home to bring us back.

I am acutely aware that I am not home. But none of us are home yet. God’s departure from the heavenly realm is a reminder that we need to come home. As we gather with our family around familiar tables we tell the story of how God leaves home to be born into a strange, imperfect world with an adoptive family. What we will realize, quite painfully and joyfully, months later on Easter, is that God’s gone before us on our journey home. Christmas isn’t the end of our homecoming, it’s merely the beginning. 


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