Home, Sweet, Home

It's late. I'm sitting here listening to the wind blow against the house, rattling the old wood frame windows while the windchimes sing outside on the porch. These are the same sounds I have listened to for years as I laid in my bed trying to sleep. I remember as a child when the wind was really strong I would be rather jumpy when some unknown object would crack or snap in the wind. Now though, these sounds bring a smile to my face and make a warmth spread through me as I am comforted by the familiar, by the feeling of home that surrounds me, by the flood of memories that come rushing in my mind of countless moments from my life here.
It amazes me how certain sounds, certain smells, certain images conjure up some obscure memory of life back then.
That's what coming back to my childhood home does to me. I love re-exploring all my old haunts and special places and being able to share them with Vince. It's like sharing more of me. I feel like those places, those sounds, those experiences are a part of me.
But as I have grown, my sense of home has changed a bit. Since I have found myself moving to different places I have begun to realize that home is a very temporary thing in this life and we can't hold too tightly to things here. Our home is not here.
As I spend time here, soaking up Kansas and my family, I am struck with the fact that all this will someday fade. It's all fleeting. It's very easy for me to get so wrapped up in how I feel when I come back here that I forget that home isn't a place on our earthly map. It's not here, it's not in Michigan, it's Heaven.
I know that as much as I love coming back to Kansas, there's a large part of me that longs for our home in Michigan because that's where Vince and I belong. That's where our life is now and we are creating precious memories there that bring with it a new sense of home and it's own peace and comfort. It's a home filled with joy and love. A home made sweeter by all that God has blessed us with.
But even that, that's temporary. Hebrews tells us in 13:14 that we aren't to seek a continuing city on earth, but the one that is to come. That is our eternal home, one that will continue, one that is so amazing and beautiful and full of peace and glory that our minds can't even comprehend it.
More and more I am homesick for that home. That is where my Father is, that is where He has prepared a place for me, that is where my treasures are being stored. And they will not fade, they cannot be destroyed.
I am learning that I can come to Kansas and have a wonderful time. I can enjoy all that Kansas means to me and surround myself with my families love.
I can love going back to Michigan and settle back into the daily routine and praise God for our pretty home and the love Vince and I have that has built our home and given as joy and peace and lots of happiness.
But my eyes must be fixed on Heaven. My heart must not focus on what is, but what is to come. There my joy and peace will be complete and everlasting. There no sadness will mar the wonder and forever we will be surrounded by beauty and the presence of our Father and King. The sounds of praise will fill our ears, the sights of things now unseen will thrill us and the exhiliration of all the wonder of Heaven will be ours.
That's home. And someday all of us who are looking for it will get to go there. Then we can truely say we are home. Sweet Home.