I was fortunate to be able to spend part of this past weekend with my Mom at her home, the home that my parents raised four children in and in which they have been the only owners and occupants in (other than Love) since it was built in the late 1950's.

It is a scenic little lot full of trees that my parents (and we kids)planted over the years. When they bought it, Mom didn't like the lot because there were no trees but Dad assured her they could plant their own and watch them grow. Like their family, the trees have grown and surrounded the lot with a canopy of greens and deep red that all but block the sun from the yard.

Though the lot looks small now, it never did when we were growing up - it was a place where we spent countless hours experiencing the magic of childhood and the lessons of love and life. It was a massive country for my Matchbox cars with dirt roads winding through the grass and flower beds -- even a demolition derby track for my repainted cars in the middle of one of the back flower beds (sorry Mom).

Love still resides there with Mom though Dad has been gone for 15 years this August. Though the walls are full of memories and it always feels like HOME when I pull up out front and enter Mom's embrace, I know that there are days where the gentle warmth and presence of my Father are missed deeply and that given the choice she would be with him still.

The little college that was nearby when I was a child now virtually surrounds her as a university, with windows looking out on parking lots and dorms rather than the homes of neighbors and friends. The university will gladly receive her house for demolition when she is ready to give it up, but how do you do that? How do you leave the place where you raised four children, hosted grandchildren and friends, shared your marriage for 40 years and the living shadows of it for 15 more? I know the memories that are harbored there for me; for Mom they are multiplied many-fold and it is, by any definition, the home that she and Dad loved into being.

For some it can be just as difficult to look at leaving the world they know behind, stepping away from the "what I know and have some semblence of control over" into the things that they don't know. It can be stepping out in faith into missions, moving to another town to start a new job, or leaving a worldly life full of its "pleasures" for a life lived for Christ and His kingdom. We as Christians must keep this in mind and share with compassion, not pry and tug with crobar and chains.


I know that everyone wasn't blessed with the home or family that we were growing up and I wish that they had been. I can't imagine who or where I would be without them -- as it is there are days I'm not sure who it is that I am. I do know that we all have a home in Christ and that like loving parents, He is there to welcome us into the life, the world, the home that He has for us.

Rest in Him today.

brad