There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home! Around the holidays, if you are lucky and have the means to be “home” for Christmas, it brings great joy and excitement. Seeing family you’ve not seen in awhile, re-connecting with friends, it is a joyous occasion for most. But then there are those who feel maybe you can’t go home, you’ve been away too many years, or there’s a rift in your family. There’s maybe been a divorce and you don’t know which “home” is yours anymore. In my family, that is never the case, no matter what has happened, home is always home. We welcome in the strays, our friends who maybe can’t afford to travel, or just don’t have anyone to celebrate with. And it reminds me of three of the parables of Jesus on redemption: the Shepard going after the one lost sheep, the lady lighting a lamp and sweeping the floor to find the one lost coin and of course the prodigal son. You have never strayed too far from your loved ones to be forgiven…we have never strayed too far from God for Him to forgive us. It is amazing to me to think that no matter what I have done, thanks to a tiny baby born in a manger, all we have to do is asked to be forgiven and we will be welcomed with open arms to our Father’s house. Humbling isn’t it?
"Socrates taught for 40 years, Plato 50, Aristotle 40, and Jesus 3 and a half. Yet, the influence of Jesus Christ's brief ministry transcends infinitely that of the combined 130 years of these greatest philosophers of antiquity." An old Christmas Card quote.
