As I listened to the words to that classic Christmas song, something deep within me was moved. 

I remembered one Christmas almost twenty years ago when my family and I lived away from my childhood Alabama home.  We were going home for Christmas. Then it snowed. And iced. Yet I felt I had to go home for Christmas! I convinced my husband to drive home on the ice and snow in a little car that was certainly not an all-terrain vehicle. We made a three hour trip in six hours and I prevailed. I made it home for Christmas with my husband and two young children.  I might not have been very wise, perhaps, but I was very determined. 

This year, our daughter, Kara Beth, is in Dallas, Texas, with her husband’s family for Christmas enjoying a big snow. Since she can’t be home for Christmas, we video-chatted this morning together. 

 The following are thoughts from I message I recently shared at our church called “Home for Christmas".

The idea of “home” stirs strong emotion for most of us. Some never want to return. Others, like me, feel compelled to be there at Christmas, but I think it all has its roots in our spiritual DNA. Let me explain. 

Home is the place you were created for! Adam and Eve were created and given a home in the Garden of Eden. Sin entered, and God cast them out of the Garden.  I believe that ever since that moment, mankind has been longing for home, a longing which can now only be ultimately fulfilled in heaven but our earthly homes are to be reflections of God’s design. You were created for home. It was God’s original plan. 

From the beginning, home was designed to be a place of compassion and love. It was only after Adam and Eve sinned that shame, blame, guilt, separation, anger, etc. entered the picture. 

Jesus told a parable which is recorded in Luke 15 that we often call the story of the prodigal son. I think the story is really a story of home. A story of what a Father is to be. A story of relationships.

"There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, ‘Father, I want right now what’s coming to me.’

 ^12-16"So the father divided the property between them. It wasn’t long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any.

 ^17-20"That brought him to his senses. He said, ‘All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I’m going back to my father. I’ll say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.’ He got right up and went home to his father.

 ^20-21"When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: ‘Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son ever again.’

 ^22-24"But the father wasn’t listening. He was calling to the servants, ‘Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We’re going to feast! We’re going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!’ And they began to have a wonderful time.

 ^25-27"All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day’s work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. He told him, ‘Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast—barbecued beef!—because he has him home safe and sound.’

 ^28-30"The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen. The son said, ‘Look how many years I’ve stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!’

 ^31-32"His father said, ‘Son, you don’t understand. You’re with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he’s alive! He was lost, and he’s found!’"  (The Message)

The younger son in the story asks for his inheritance, leaves home, wastes it with women and liquor, finds himself hungry, destitute and working in a pig’s pen, and decides it is time to go home. His father sees him “a long way off” and runs to meet him. This picture that Jesus painted of home shows us that home is a place of love and compassion. The father wasn’t angry when he saw his son returning. He was full of emotion. He ran to his son and kissed him. Men today need to note the Father’s response. Emotion is okay! The younger son did not have to guess whether the Father accepted him or not. He could feel his Father’s arms around him and see the tears flowing down his Father’s face. He felt the kiss of the Father.

As I thought about what home was originally designed to be, and what this parable Jesus told portrayed home to be, I thought of how home is the place where your hunger is filled. The prodigal knew that if he could only get back home, his hunger would be filled. God longs to fill our spiritual, emotional hunger.

Home is the place where your Father covers you. The father immediately covered his son with the best robe. He didn’t wait for the son to take a bath. He covered him. What a beautiful picture of how God covers us with his very best, the blood of Jesus!

Home is the place where you really belong. Home is a place of belonging. When the prodigal son got home, the father placed sandals on his feet, a sign that he was a son and not a servant.  The father placed a ring on his finger, a sign of high position in the family. These were symbols of acceptance; the son was back where he really belonged.

Home is the place of provision. The father prepared the best calf for a big beef BBQ, a sign that God must be a Southerner!  No more pork for this Jewish boy! 

Home is a place of celebration. Upon the prodigal’s return the father said, “Strike up the band; we are going to dance and have a party. Prepare the best food.” God loves to throw a good party! He celebrates when a child comes home. He puts forth the very best to signify the joy that fills His heart.

Home is a place of relationships. The Bible is so beautifully honest about humanity. It shows the truth about its characters; the good, bad, and the ugly. Not only are we shown the prodigal’s failures, we are shown the struggles of the older brother. The Bible shows us pictures of real relationships, how those that go wrong, and how to restore them. Our Christian life is all about relationships, with God and with each other.

And home is a place you can leave if you want to. Part of our Christian freedom is that God doesn’t force us to fellowship with Him. It is our choice.

I wonder if we could all stop and evaluate today where we are in relationship to home, spiritually. Where are our hearts in relation to home?

The younger son had been full of himself, left home, and returned feeling unworthy to be a son. The older son had never left home, but his heart did not reflect the heart of his father. 

Have you physically left like the prodigal? Maybe you have literally left “the church” or your family. It may be easy for us to identify those who have blatantly “left”, but how often have we found ourselves in a foreign place in our hearts while it appears on the surface that we are “home” spiritually?

There are lots of ways you can be away from God and no one else may even know. You may have allowed bitterness or anger to come between you and your Father. Maybe there is judgment in your heart toward your other brothers and sisters.

I love how this parable shows us the way to come home. The first step is:

1. Come to your senses. The prodigal came to his senses. Maybe he began the journey home just because of his physical hunger, but along the way his repentance became stronger and deeper, and I think real transformation came when he found himself in his father’s arms.

2.  Take a step in the right direction. That’s all it takes. The prodigal began a process of going home.

3. Allow the Father’s love to do the rest. What an awesome picture of God! When the son felt his father’s embrace and his kisses, he knew everything was going to be okay. I believe the love of his father both reawakened his hunger for home and relationship and washed away his guilt. His father wasn’t worried about the prepared speech the son was making, “I have sinned…” He just wanted to embrace his son and rejoice!

So as we celebrate Christmas today, may this day find us truly home, in our hearts and in our relationships. As we celebrate the birth of Jesus, may we experience the truth of home that we were created for and know the Father’s love in ways that draw our hearts closer to home than ever before.

Seven years ago, my daughter, Kara Beth, who was sixteen at the time asked for a Labrador Retriever for Christmas.  Her dad quickly reminded her that we lived in the church parsonage which was right by the church parking lot and that we just couldn’t have a Labrador Retriever.

Kara Beth was so disappointed, but she moved to plan B. “Can I have a Yorkie instead?”  A house dog. Umm. Now my husband and I didn’t really want a house dog, but Eddie agreed to check out Yorkies and see. His research led him to tell our daughter that she could indeed have a Yorkie because they didn’t shed, etc.  But then he found out how much they cost. Ouch.

“Kara Beth, we can’t give you a Yorkie for Christmas. They can cost from $400-$800 each and we can’t spend that much for each of you (we have four children),” her dad told her. Once again, she was heartbroken so she sadly put the dagger through Eddie’s heart and asked if she could have some blue jeans. Quite a drop of expectation level  from a dog to a pair of jeans.

Only a few days later, a woman I had not previously met approached me at our church service, introduced herself, and told me that she believed God had told her to give us one of her Yorkie pups from the litter of her registered Yorkie, if we would like to accept it. I remember thinking that I hoped Eddie was serious when he told her Kara Beth that she could have a Yorkie because it appeared that God was giving her one. I thought of how my daughter had been on a seventy day fast from her lunches, spending her school lunch hour praying instead of eating.  It seemed that God was about to give her the desire of her heart.

You should have seen Kara Beth’s face when she heard the news. Tears in her eyes. She was speechless, a condition not common for our daughter. My new acquaintance, Cathleen, made arrangements for Kara Beth to pick her pup out of the litter and explained how long it would be before the pups could leave their mom. My daughter picked the runt of the bunch because he was the spunkiest.  And so we became the owners of Gabriel whom we affectionately call Gabby. Or maybe I should say that Gabby became the owners of a new family of six.

And so we began the journey of life with Gabby. Since that time Gabby became my dog when my daughter left home for college.

I was reflecting on life with Gabby this morning as he slept in my lap so I thought I would write a bullet list of lessons I’ve learned about life and God from my dog.

·         Gabby is completely dependent upon me and my family. We have to feed him, give him water, bathe him, and clean up his messes.

·         He dances around and around every day begging for food.

·         If his belly is full, nothing makes him happier than to lie in my lap and sleep, close enough to me to feel my heartbeat.

·         He loves to have his belly rubbed and thinks we enjoy it as much as he does.

·         He will sit on command for a treat, but he would prefer not to have to mind anyone.

·         He is sad when we leave home, and ecstatic when we return.  When we return home after having been gone, if even for a few minutes, he dances and smiles (really, he shows his teeth), and begs to be held and acts as if we’d been gone for days.

·         He often begs for things he does not need, some of which upset his tummy, and believe me, you do not want your inside doggie to have an upset tummy.

·         Occasionally he gets fleas which causes him to scratch and makes his skin break out, wakes him up at night, etc. We have to kill the fleas for him giving him a pill which goes into his blood and kills the fleas when they bite.

·         He doesn’t always behave perfectly.

·         Overall, he just makes for a lot of extra work for me.

·         Overall, he provides a lot of extra love for me.

This morning I was thinking about how much my relationship with Gabby is like God’s relationship with me.

·         I am completely dependent upon God. He provides for me, refreshes me, cleanses me, and cleans up my messes.

·         I dance around and beg him for my basic needs which he fully intended to provide for me anyway. He is just aware of the importance of the timing.

·         When my basic needs are met, I can rest in Him, as if I were lying in his lap, close enough to hear his heartbeat.

·         I love his affection and believe (most of the time) he enjoys loving me as much as I enjoy receiving his love.

·         I try to obey him, but often would prefer to do my own thing.

·         He is sad when I leave him, if even for a few moments, but ecstatic when I return.

·         I often beg him for things I do not need, some of which would be harmful to me and create more messes for him to clean up.

·         Occasionally, I get the equivalent of spiritual fleas which make me uncomfortable and drive me nuts even though the fleas think I am the perfect host. God is the only one who can kill them. Oh, I might scratch one or two off, but God has to do something inside my blood to change me so they can’t live on me anymore.

·         I don’t always behave perfectly.

·         I am a lot of extra work for God.

·         He really loves me anyway.

It’s Christmas time. Time to buy gifts for those I love. So I’ve been thinking about gifts and gift-giving.  I am thinking about those on my  list and wishing to find the perfect gift for them.

As I think back over my years, a few “perfect”  gifts stand out in my mind.  I remember the year my parents gave me a birthstone ring shaped like a heart with the word love on it.

I think of one year when Eddie and I were living in Mississippi. There was a big snow and ice was on the roads, but I so wanted to go home for Christmas. That classic old song Home for Christmas haunted me.  “I’ll be home for Christmas, you can count on me…”   We drove from Mississippi back to north Alabama on a sheet of ice, but I had to be home! Now that was a gift of love from my husband. Needless to say, we were much younger then and maybe not as wise, but I got home for Christmas!

I remember the year my husband hid a beautiful ring in a pair of gloves. I was so discouraged over getting a pair of gloves and trying not to show it. I put the gloves aside for I had gotten more than one pair that year. Eddie kept insisting I try them on. In truth, I didn’t want to take the tags off to try them on because I was planning on taking them back asap. When I finally consented and place my hands in the gloves, there was my ring inside the ring finger of the gloves.

I also remember times when gifts made me feel unloved or misunderstood.  And I remember some gifts that were just a way to X me off someone’s list of obligations. Like dishtowels. Please don’t give me dishtowels. I mean, why do women get the gifts that have to do with cleaning the house and cooking meals?  I don’t mean to be ungrateful, but for me in order for a gift to be special, it needs to say you care, you know me. It doesn’t need to be expensive, but it needs to show someone cares.

I remember some Christmases that were really hard.  Gifts really didn’t matter those years because the pain overshadowed everything else.

 Gifts  show love when they speak with understanding of our hearts. When they say, I know you and wanted to do something special for you.

When God sent his son as a sacrifice for us, his gift said he knew us. He knew more about our hearts than we ourselves did. He knew the good parts and he knew the bad parts. And he gave Jesus because he loved us so much right in the midst of our sin and imperfections.

The gift of Jesus is the gift of relationship. It is the gift that says God wants to spend all his time with us. Forever. He enjoys us. He wants us to come to his parties; the here and now parties and the future parties.  Oh yes, God loves a good party; check out the story of the prodigal son.

 You know, I love to give people expensive gifts. I always wish I could give those I love something they would never buy for themselves or that they were not able to buy for themselves.  I can’t always do that, but when God gave Jesus, he gave the most expensive gift ever.  He gave the gift we could never purchase ourselves. Jesus is a priceless gift; a gift which cannot be duplicated; a one of a kind gift.

Sometimes I have difficulty accepting an expensive gift. I feel as if I don’t deserve it. I have to humble myself to accept it.  In the same way, we have to humble ourselves to receive the gift of Jesus. We don’t deserve him. When we accept his gift, we are indebted by love to forever live in light of the gift.

So as I prepare for Christmas with all its gift giving and receiving,  I know that God’s gifts are the most beautiful and loving of all and I hope I will be able to give gifts this year that can somehow reflect God’s heart.

For after all, perfect gifts aren’t really things which can be bought. They are gifts of presence. Gifts of time. Gifts of intimacy. Gifts of celebration. Gifts born of relationship. 

 And Jesus is the perfect gift. Expensive for God to give. Humbling for me to receive.  He is the gift I can continue to give to all those whom my life touches. He is the gift of time and intimacy and celebration and relationship, and the gift that always meets my needs and fulfills my deepest desires.