Home

Home is an interesting word and concept. 

In the English language it can be a noun, adjective, adverb and a verb.  Today I want to home in (see what I did there) on the noun and adjective use of home. 

According to the oxford dictionary… Interesting side story I LOVE using the internet to look up words.  If I spell the word wrong it helps me figure out how to spell it correctly.  Growing up, whenever I would ask my mom how to spell a word she would instruct me to look it up in the dictionary.  To which I would respond either out loud or in my head to do that I need to know how to spell the word.  Needless to say there were a couple of times that I had to go through all the D’s to find the spelling of dyslexic.  Also it is a bit unkind to give a learning disability a difficult spelling, but I digress. 

According to the oxford dictionary home is: “the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household.”  The other definition given that I like is: “a place where something flourishes, is most typically found, or from which it originates.”

During the past 17 weeks we have had a lot of “homes” or places from where we have originated for that day or couple of days. We have had places where we flourished and places where we simply laid our heads before getting back into the car.  We started the journey from our home in South Africa and ended there last Friday evening.  In between we had close to 30 “homes,” traveled over 11,000 miles/close to 18,000 kilometers, and spoke in 44 different services/conventions/gatherings.  It was a blessed time connecting with family friends, and others interested in what God is doing on the Africa South Field.  It was not always easy or fun but we really do count it a blessing that we got to spend as time with family, framily, and friends making memories and remembering memories from the past. 

As blessed as our time in the states was, there is just something about being in your own home that I can’t explain.  Being in our own bed, knowing where things are without asking, eating dinner at our table as a family, being able to put your feet up and chill without answering questions (well except for toddler questions J), are little things we take for granted until they are not part of your normal everyday life. It is so nice to get settled back into routines of cooking, grocery shopping, cleaning, doing dishes, exercising etc.  which may seem silly or trivial but over the last 17 weeks those things weren’t routine. 

While we were traveling, small talk about home was always a little awkward. 

Explaining where home is or trying to communicate the concept of having several homes is not always easy or understood.  When Peter is older it will be interesting how he navigates the “where is home” question.  We had some fun trying to explain to Peter that we were home and we were going to be staying here not moving on to the next place in a couple of days. 

Home – using the definition “a place where something flourishes, originates” means that we can have home in multiple places.  I can be at home in my town house in Jo’berg and in my good friends house in Kansas, I can be at home at a pastors house in Botswana or at a house church in North Carolina.  Home doesn’t have to be a set address on the one hand but on the other returning to the set address you call home is wonderful as well.

This week whether you are “home” or far away from home, you can create an environment wherever you are that those around you can flourish.  

Until next time: When your jetlagging toddler falls asleep sitting up while you are reading to him, maybe it is time to let him lay down for a little while even if it is only 5:30pm.