Welcome Home

What is a home? Home is one of the simplisticly complex ideas that can plague the mind. We know what it is in our heart, but how does one describe it? Home is somewhere between "where one is" and "who one is."

A house is usually the part of a home that comes first to mind. The house is the physical embodyment of home. It provides shelter to our bodies, and a place to store our physical possesions. The house is what keeps us warm. It has our favorite chair, TV, and frontdoor where we greet the pizza delivery guy. Friends enter it; solicitors knock upon it, governments tax it, HGTV tells us how to accesorize it. That's an interesting idea... Just why do we spend so much time painting and searching for the perfect furniture?

We are trying to create something more in our house than just a physical space. We attempt to link our houses to something inside of us. We talk about "the mood" or "the feeling" of a space: warm, comfy, elegant, inviting, austere, open. We create rooms that not only provide for our physical comforts, but also provide for the comforts of the "soul" for lack of a better word.

We are physical AND spiritual beings. To ignore either side is to starve ourselves. The spiritual has the benefit of being longer lasting however. Houses are broken into, televisions stolen. Locks rust, and draperies are eaten by moths. (Five points, if this sounds familiar). Home is more than all this. Home is where our spirits reside, where our dreams are, where our care and love is stored. How many of you have ever been invited by someone into their life and marveled at just how "rich" they were despite having nothing in their house? Give thanks, for you have been blessed with the experience of a true home. This is what is created when one truly "stores up their riches in Heaven." We're not talking about an inaccesible 401k that we begin to draw from once we die. We are God's path to the world. By storing treasures in our "homes" we can invite people in for a taste of the warmth and comfort that God offers...today! The more we store there, the more we can give. Unlike the physical world, the more we give of this home, the more there is TO give.

Like I said earlier, we are physical AND spiritual beings. Our bodies need to be cared for. Creating and opening up a physical house as part of your home is a wonderful thing. We are only in trouble once the house becomes all there is to your home. Go ahead, love your house, accesorize it, make it an inviting place that allows you to love and give God's grace more freely, but always remember that your home is where your true gifts to give reside. It can never be lost to disaster or moving. Making the house the home is like serving the can and throwing away the Cambell's Cream of Chicken.