Nothing New: Home for the Holidays

Introduction

Welcome to “Nothing New.” The goal of my blog in the past has been to stimulate discussion about all things related to CBC, the Christian life, and the world at large. But it has recently been hijacked by my cancer and treatment. This means I have to eat some crow (which I hate) because early on I boldly claimed I would not allow my condition to take center stage in my life.

But it is taking center stage on my blog – for a while. I am rather torn about this development. I am uncomfortable making this all about me – because it’s not. It is strangely therapeutic for me to blog about this, however, and I cannot express even a fraction of my appreciation for everyone who reads and leaves their funny, weird, and /or encouraging words in comments and emails.

So please join with me in dialogue. I always look forward to reading your comments. (If you'd like to follow my cancer journey from day 1, please go to my post on 6/25/08 - Life Takes Guts - in the archives and follow the posts upwards from there.)

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Home for the Holidays

We all want to be home for the holidays, don’t we?

I know, I know… some of our families are a little weird. (Don’t even get me started on mine.) And I know a few folks actually have pretty lousy families and they may not want to hang out with them now or any other time of the year. But there seems to be a universal desire to be around those we love during Christmas. Spending time with close friends and loved family members just seems right as we celebrate Jesus’ birth. We want to be home for the holidays.

The only problem is that we don’t remember where home is.

In the middle of the book of Hebrews is the “Hall of Faith.” It is a memorial to some of the great men and women of God. And here is a description of them from chapter 11, verses 13-16.

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

How often we forget... The place where we were born is not our home. The place we live now is not really our home. The place where our parents live is not really our home, either.

Heaven is home.

And when we celebrate Jesus’ birth and the gift of salvation, we are celebrating the fact that we now have a new home.

Listen, I’m not trying to be a Grinch. Christmas should be fun. We should fully enjoy time with friends and family. But while we are feeling all the warm fuzzies of being home for the holidays, let that fuel our anticipation of our real home someday.