With Thoughts Of Home

Christmas is a time when most of us get a little nostalgic, and our thoughts begin to turn towards home. Even now, I still remember many a cold Christmas morning where we raced from our bedrooms to the living room to see just what items from our list that Santa had left under our Christmas tree. Amazingly, the list of desires always lost importance as we ripped the paper off each package. Some gifts were from the list and some were not, but each package, wrapped in love, brought a smile to our happy little faces.

The excitement of those mornings always gave way to the anticipation of more traditions of Christmas at my grandparents’ houses. Returning to each of my parents’ home place made our Christmas complete. If I were able to turn back the hands of time, I would roll it back to one of those special Christmas celebrations where the biggest concern was who was going to hand out all of the gifts under the tree, or just how much food could you get on one plate.

Even now, some of us can still return home at Christmas and some cannot. As children get older, the places where we celebrate Christmas may change. When we were younger, most of us traveled to grandparents, and then when our own children are born priorities start shifting to new celebrations at our parents’ houses, when we become grandparents we start new traditions at our own homes. While time changes where we celebrate, there is something about Christmas, which always points us towards home.

Perhaps it has something to do with that first Christmas celebration, when Joseph and Mary returned to Bethlehem. In Luke 2:4 we read; “And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David.” You see, this was one trip home, which literally split time in half and changed the world forever. For on this trip to the ancestral home of Joseph, the greatest gift the world has ever known, foretold by the Prophet Isaiah centuries prior, was born, wrapped, and laid with love in a borrowed stable, to only later be wrapped and laid in a borrowed tomb.

Thanks be to God, the Christmas story not only has a beginning, and the tomb was not the ending. The real message of the greatest story ever told, is that Jesus Christ also rose from the grave, so that we could all live together with him one day in a heavenly home prepared for those who accept him as their Lord and Savior. In John 14:2, we have this promise; “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”

All who accept this gift of salvation have an invitation to attend the greatest homecoming ever seen in all of history. At this celebration, we will once again be able to embrace friends and loved ones who left this world too soon. Joining the celebration will be all the saints throughout history, and we will all fall to our knees and proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord of all. So, let us not just turn our thoughts towards home for Christmas, but towards home for eternity. Let us longingly prepare for that day when every tear shall disappear, replaced with smiles just like a child opening gifts on Christmas morning, and we will spend eternity in our heavenly home. Are you ready?