Home for the Holidays
I'm dreaming tonight of a place I love more than I usually do... Please, celebrate me home... I'm dreaming of a white Christmas... But I can dream and in my dreams, I'm Christmas-ing with you... I'll be home for Christmas...
Do you recognize those lines from Christmas songs? During this Christmas season, as I sing songs like that, I have been longing for home - the place where I belong - where I am loved - where I feel warm and welcome. I have been longing for the place filled with celebration and love beyond anything I can imagine. Pure white Christmas every day- home where every day is a holiday - with the ones I love and not just in my dreams. I long for that home here in this place and I long for the eternal home that is being prepared for me and for all of us who have salvation through Jesus Christ. Home. We all long for home. And as we celebrate Christ's first coming to this earth that brought salvation, it is understandable that we would long for His second coming all the more because then we will be in that perfect eternal home.
II Peter 3:14 in the Message says: "So, dear friends, since this is what you have to look forward to, do your very best to be found living at your best, in purity and peace. Interpret our Master's patient restraint for what it is - salvation." He waits to take me to my eternal home so more can come to know His salvation. And how will they know it? By my living at my best. What does that mean? Peter says in II Peter 1:3-11 that we are to build on what we've been given - salvation - participation in the life of God - by complementing our basic faith in Christ with good character, with spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love. And this type of living is not just so we will look good when He comes for us, is it? It is for the world to see His appearing in us. And it is for us to find ourselves appearing in Him and with Him in all of His glory. It is a picture of the home of our longings.
So the perfect picture of home during the holidays is one just like Peter describes - good character, understanding, discipline, patience, wonder, warm friendliness and generous love. Doesn't that sound glorious??? But most of us find the holidays to be stressful and difficult and even painful... So how can they be the glorious pictures of home we long for and dream about now and for eternity?
Peter tells us that if we are growing actively in the qualities he listed that no day will pass without its reward. We won't miss a thing Father wants us to have in this earthly home and we will mature in our experience of knowing Jesus Christ. So for us to find that wonderful feeling of home here on earth, even (and especially!) during the holidays, we must let Spirit grow His fruit in us and let Christ build His character in us. We must keep our eyes on Him and our hearts tuned in to what He wants to do to appear in us and through us so others can see Him and know His salvation. We can't focus on the hurry and the added stress and the failures of others to be all that we need them to be for us. Instead, we can focus on the joy of His salvation, the gifts He gives us, and the pleasure we find when we give our all to Him and for Him to others, expecting nothing in return. If we can do that, we will be delivering His gift of salvation to our earthly home. And Christmas Day will not pass without its reward.
So I say in this Christmas season, "Father, celebrate me home - I long to be with You!" And I see Him like a mother busy cooking all the favorites and glancing out the window to see if her children and grandchildren are arriving. And I see Him like a child sweetly and hurriedly wrapping a handmade gift while listening for his Father's steps coming near. And I see Him like a lover holding a special of piece of jewelry in his pocket as he waits for his beloved under the mistletoe. And I see Him as my Father standing near the tree waiting for me to run in with my Brother, Jesus, to unwrap and experience every treasure waiting for me in His presence. And as I focus on Him and my home in Him, my heart melts and I find His character building in me with understanding, discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness and generous love. And home for the holidays is where I find myself.
I'm celebrating you home, too, friends.
Amy
Do you recognize those lines from Christmas songs? During this Christmas season, as I sing songs like that, I have been longing for home - the place where I belong - where I am loved - where I feel warm and welcome. I have been longing for the place filled with celebration and love beyond anything I can imagine. Pure white Christmas every day- home where every day is a holiday - with the ones I love and not just in my dreams. I long for that home here in this place and I long for the eternal home that is being prepared for me and for all of us who have salvation through Jesus Christ. Home. We all long for home. And as we celebrate Christ's first coming to this earth that brought salvation, it is understandable that we would long for His second coming all the more because then we will be in that perfect eternal home.
II Peter 3:14 in the Message says: "So, dear friends, since this is what you have to look forward to, do your very best to be found living at your best, in purity and peace. Interpret our Master's patient restraint for what it is - salvation." He waits to take me to my eternal home so more can come to know His salvation. And how will they know it? By my living at my best. What does that mean? Peter says in II Peter 1:3-11 that we are to build on what we've been given - salvation - participation in the life of God - by complementing our basic faith in Christ with good character, with spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love. And this type of living is not just so we will look good when He comes for us, is it? It is for the world to see His appearing in us. And it is for us to find ourselves appearing in Him and with Him in all of His glory. It is a picture of the home of our longings.
So the perfect picture of home during the holidays is one just like Peter describes - good character, understanding, discipline, patience, wonder, warm friendliness and generous love. Doesn't that sound glorious??? But most of us find the holidays to be stressful and difficult and even painful... So how can they be the glorious pictures of home we long for and dream about now and for eternity?
Peter tells us that if we are growing actively in the qualities he listed that no day will pass without its reward. We won't miss a thing Father wants us to have in this earthly home and we will mature in our experience of knowing Jesus Christ. So for us to find that wonderful feeling of home here on earth, even (and especially!) during the holidays, we must let Spirit grow His fruit in us and let Christ build His character in us. We must keep our eyes on Him and our hearts tuned in to what He wants to do to appear in us and through us so others can see Him and know His salvation. We can't focus on the hurry and the added stress and the failures of others to be all that we need them to be for us. Instead, we can focus on the joy of His salvation, the gifts He gives us, and the pleasure we find when we give our all to Him and for Him to others, expecting nothing in return. If we can do that, we will be delivering His gift of salvation to our earthly home. And Christmas Day will not pass without its reward.
So I say in this Christmas season, "Father, celebrate me home - I long to be with You!" And I see Him like a mother busy cooking all the favorites and glancing out the window to see if her children and grandchildren are arriving. And I see Him like a child sweetly and hurriedly wrapping a handmade gift while listening for his Father's steps coming near. And I see Him like a lover holding a special of piece of jewelry in his pocket as he waits for his beloved under the mistletoe. And I see Him as my Father standing near the tree waiting for me to run in with my Brother, Jesus, to unwrap and experience every treasure waiting for me in His presence. And as I focus on Him and my home in Him, my heart melts and I find His character building in me with understanding, discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness and generous love. And home for the holidays is where I find myself.
I'm celebrating you home, too, friends.
Amy
Amy, How beautiful! Your words bring me to our Fathers feet. I remember when we shared a home. Through laughter and tears you pointed me to our Father and His Word. Thank you Amy for seeking Him with a yearning heart and holding our hand as you go. I love you! Laurie
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Merry Christmas, my precious friend. I'm celebrating us home!!! And I love you, too.
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Hey Amy,
It is this time of year that I am reminded how much I miss TX and all of our dear friends with whom we have shared such deep and important memories. John Eldridge says every day he prays to feel loss of not being where he wants to be because it reminds him that he is not home yet. My loss of TX reminds me that in CO or TX or anywhere on this globe I am not home yet. I can't wait until there is no more loss. EVER!
Brian
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And Texas misses you, Brian. It is good to long for more, isn't it? It really does keep us focused on trusting Him to BRING IT! I am thinking of you and your precious family and praying your holidays are full and blessed. Love you all so much! I Samuel 1:17 to you, friend.
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