Home

 "Lord, through all the generations You have been our home." Psalm 90:1......"All of us are searching for a place called home." Erwin McManus

I'm not ashamed to admit that I was a fan of the "reality" series, "Duck Dynasty." I thought they were humorous, warm, and loving people. The kind of people you think you'd be comfortable with. From time to time I'll follow some of the family members on their FB page. What I see in the comments from their fans are statements that say, again and again, how much they wish their family was like the Robertson's. How much their home was like the homes they see in the series. In truth, I doubt that the actual atmosphere of their homes is anywhere near the perfection people believe them to be, but the deeper thing I see is the longing for "home" in the hearts of these fans. They're aware of how empty so many of their homes are, which only reflects the emptiness of the hearts within. They want more, and they look to the Robertson's, and others like them. Though the longing is real, they don't realize that they search for a home that can only be found in Christ. As McManus says, we're all searching for home, but we have little or no idea about where to search.

I've written before about where I lived as a college student in a little school in northwestern Pennsylvania. We lived in what was loosely defined as a hotel. There were about 10 of us in all, and the atmosphere was usually utter chaos. We were all products of the wild and wooly 60's. Parties most every night, alcohol, drugs, noise, we were committed to everything but our courses. Yet every Thursday night, most of us would gather before the TV to watch a show called "The Waltons," about a loving family living in the Great Depression. There we were, longhaired, sometimes hung over, sometimes high on what we'd been smoking or swallowing, but we rarely missed the show. I didn't understand the roots of our attraction, but I do now. We were all "looking for home." What we saw in that show was not what most of us had grown up with and experienced. I doubt that even the real life Waltons experienced that. All of us, the Robertson's, the Waltons, you and me, are looking for home. Have we found it yet? Have you? I'm not asking if you go to church, or is you've made a profession of faith. I ask if you have truly come to know Him as not only the lover of your soul, but it's keeper, its home, as well?

I flash back to that time in college. I was walking in the midst of a dark time, not the last I would know. As I was literally walking down the town street, I passed the meeting place where all the "Jesus Freaks" gathered. I lingered and gazed in through their open door. As I did, one of them, with the warmest of smiles invited me to join them. I remember hesitating, feeling the urge to go in. I sensed there was something there that I desperately needed. Home, though I didn't know it at the time. I didn't go in. I walked on, into 5 more years of searching. Searching for the home that I never stopped longing for. Then one evening, in the home I grew up in, but had never fully felt like home, I came to Christ my Savior, Christ my Lord. I found Home, and I have continued to find it in Him, and in ever deepening ways over these past 40 plus years. He is our Home, though we don't realize it. He has always been our Home, but in our blindness, rebellion, or just plain ignorance, we keep searching for that everywhere but in Him. I have always regretted not going into the little building where the Freaks met, giving myself more years in the wilderness. Finally, I did. Have you? Will you? When will you?

I don't remember that little building ever having a closed door while people were inside. The door of His heart is never closed to those who endlessly seek "home." We pass Him by every day, really, every minute. He warmly invites us in. He invites us home. It's time to come home. Enter in through the open door that is Jesus.

Blessings,

Pastor O