"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." -Emerson

Monday, October 20, 2008

Home is where...

I've been wondering lately...when does a place become your "home"? It is strange because North Carolina should have quickly become my home again. I know a lot of the area, my family and my husband's family are near by, and I know the "way of life" here pretty well (all though, it often baffles me...). So, it should have very easily melded back into being "home" for me.

But, after you leave your parents house, the longer you are away from it, the more and more it dissolves from being called "home." You all know the cliches, "you can never go home again," "home is where the heart is," etc. etc. I guess with adulthood, the definition of home can become convoluted and not as straight forward of an answer when you were a child.

We haven't gotten "plugged in" here yet. We have had a lot going on: personal stuff, house buying stuff, busy work schedules, etc. We haven't moved into our new house yet so we are still Marine Corps gypsies. In Florida, we had a very full life as well, filled with a variety of people and activities. Right now, we have a lot of things going on here, but that feeling of home is not here yet.

I have faith it will come eventually. It is just hard, because our previous home doesn't feel like home either, so we are in a state of homelessness. Having those you love surrounding you definitely makes it easier to begin to feel at home, but I wonder if part of getting that feeling is a certain amount of familiarity that only comes with time and adventure. I really don't know...

Consider this: "Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands." 2 Corinthians 5:1 (NIV). Home truly does not exist in the form of a building, a certain location or a specific person. Our true home is immovable, unchanging and everlasting. We don't have to move...ever. We don't have to start anew with new friends, new church, new activities, or a new house. It is difficult to get our human standards to understand this truth. We equate home with these things. We feel unrest until we have a certain life or schedule. But, the reality is that no matter where we live, our home will forever be the same...if we so choose.

Here's to finding home...

Until next time-
-C.

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