I’m home again. It’s been about a month since I spent any time in my own home. Now, to be honest, I have more places that feel like home than the place I pay a mortgage on: My folk’s place in Belleville, of course the farmhouse, my friends’ place in Oshawa, another friends’ place in Brampton, the pulpits in which I have preached (especially those in which I have preached regularly)….the city of Jerusalem, the city of Thunder Bay.

I’m blessed to have so many places that feel like home – like a comfortable, safe, easy place to exist. A place where I am most myself.

One of the things that the pandemic has taught us all, is how important home can be. In mid-March 2020, our homes became everything: our place of rest, our place of safety, our gym, our office, our place of entertainment, our favourite restaurant.

I remember preparing a funeral, once, with some colleagues. And we got talking about the places that feel like home to us. That there are just certain places in the world where – maybe due to memories, maybe due to experiences, maybe due to things we cannot begin to fathom – our souls resonate within us, crying out, “You are home. You are home.”

My colleagues and I each described some of those places and we agreed that this must be what Heaven is like, only more-so. That Heaven would be the place that feels the most “You are home” that you’ve ever felt. Period. That thought continues to make me smile whenever the world gets a little too dark and difficult for my liking (which, let’s be honest, it has been on an extraordinary level throughout this year).

Until tomorrow, dear friends, may you trust that God is making a home for you – the homiest home that ever homed! May you trust that his good place for you, is ready and waiting, for the right time. And in the meantime may you work to make your earthly home ever-closer to your heavenly home.