Home Again

My visit with my precious Aunts was all I wanted it to be . . . and more. Here we are - Aunt Nelle beside me, then Uncle Dale and Aunt Nancy.

My Uncle Dale is one of the most gracious gentlemen you'll ever meet. After 53 years of marriage, he still opens the car door for Aunt Nancy and pulls her chair out for her at dinner. He waited on all three of us indulging our every whim - calling us his "harem" - all week. A more thoughtful man would be impossible to find. What a sweetheart! No wonder his wife is wild about him!

Nancy and Dale live about two blocks from the Atlantic Ocean in beautiful Daytona Beach. Every morning while I was there, it was my joy to slip out onto their patio to have my quiet time and, most days, to watch the sun rising in the east paint its many shades of yellows and pinks all across the early morning sky. Doesn't God just delight you with the beauty of nature sometimes!

Every day my joy in being there spilled from my heart onto the pages of my journal and from my lips to the heart of God as adoration and appreciation for His goodness. One morning, I told the Lord again how grateful I was to have this opportunity for reconnecting with my family and what joy I found in being with the people who have loved me since the day I drew my first breath . . . people who have loved me in good times and in bad . . . people who KNOW me and love me anyway. I wrote, "Father, being with them fills a need deep within my soul."

Immediately God reminded me that HE has loved me since BEFORE I drew my first breath . . . that HE knows me completely . . . that HE loves me with an everlasting love. I turned to Psalm 139 and began to read:

"O Lord, you have searched me and known me!

You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from afar."

"Even before a word is on my tongue,

behold, O Lord, you know it altogether."

"Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there were none of them."

I wrote, "O my Father, as much joy as there is in being with family, there is even greater joy in knowing that I am a part of YOUR family. Knowing that I have a family connection with YOU feeds something deeper than my soul . . . it encompasses my spirit . . . it has become the very essence of who I am."

It made me sad to leave Florida and lose the intimate communication with my aunts. But, at the same time, it made me realize how very precious it is that there is nowhere I can ever go that God will not have gone before me and be there with me . . . hemming me in . . . holding me close. The same psalms says:

"You hem me in, behind and before

and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

it is high, I cannot attain it."

Away or at home . . . in the land of my birth (Florida) or the land of my choice (Mississippi) . . . my Heavenly Father is there LOVING me. It's too wonderful for me to even comprehend! All honor and praise to our glorious God whose heart provides our truest HOME!

I'm HOME . . . again!