14th December 2023
Home for Christmas
Everyone wants to be home for Christmas. What is it that makes them almost inseparable? Both words conjure up feelings of warmth, security, comfort, nurture, and love. The smells call to us too – bread baking, a turkey in the oven and pine wreaths on the door. Being away from home at Christmas makes people feel sad and nostalgic.
It’s been said the human heart has a hole the same shape and size as God. We have longings, desires, and needs no human being can ever fulfil. But so many search for fulfilment everywhere else before turning to God – If they ever do. Longing for home and the good things we associate with home is in reality a longing for the presence of God in our lives. And Christmas is the time of year people seem to long for home the most.
Christmas and home go together because Christmas symbolises when God came to earth. He came to our home, to be one of us, so that eventually we could make our home with him. God is like home – He’s warm, loving, nurturing and secure, and smells good too, like a fresh rain or a sweet rose. All the wonderful feelings and good things of home are wrapped up in God.
He is home.
He lives in the heart of every believer, at home inside of us. In John 14:17, Jesus talked about how he lives in us, and we live in him. We make our home in him. He said he would prepare a place for us, in his Father’s home. So, we know when we die, we will be home – With and in God.
But what if thoughts of home don’t evoke warm fuzzies? Some don’t have happy families or the memories that come with them. Family members may let us down. They get sick and die. Then God and home must become even more synonymous. Just as he can be mother, father, sister, or brother for us, he can also be home. God loves, nurtures, and comforts us. He is the only one who can fill all the deep longings of our hearts.
Instead of only going to your physical home this Christmas season, take some time to go
home to God. Recognise and acknowledge those longings in your heart for what they really are – The desire and the need for God. All the good things of home and Christmas are in him, with him and through him. Make yourself at home in him and come home to him for Christmas.
Study by Tammy Tkach
First published on 28 November 2023, at www.gemsofgodsgrace.wordpress.com
About the writer:
Tammy Tkach is the Assistant Pastor of the Eugene, Oregon, USA, Grace Communion International congregation. She is a speaker and writer, and publishes a blog at www.gemsofgodsgrace.wordpress.com
Local congregation:
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