AT HOME…

May you be glad on the
same score and rejoice with me.
Philippians 2:18

I laughed as I hesitated over the second page of our Holy Land album. There is a photo of my husband and me looking completely exhausted. Though we’re both smiling, our drooping eyelids were unmistakable!

We had both intended to sleep during our flight from New York to Tel Aviv. However, sleep never came. Some excited passengers chatted throughout the entire flight. I wrote “excited” because their pitch and their comments indicated that they were especially happy about their impending return to Tel Aviv. As I listened, I recalled all that awaited our group there. I felt excited, too. Because this was our third visit to the Holy Land, the special places we’d visit were now familiar to me. That trip proved to be a homecoming for me as well.

You and I experience homecomings more often that we’re aware. We belong to families and neighborhoods, faith communities, social clubs, service organizations and sports teams. We share workplaces and favorite gathering places where we feel very much at home. As I consider them all, I see their common thread. Each one reminds me that I don’t live alone on this earth. Every place where I encounter my fellow humans gives me reason to feel at home. The album I’m sharing with you reminds me that the Holy Land had become one of those “at home” places to me.

As we continue our journeys through Lent, perhaps we can find ways to make those around us feel at home as well, especially those who are lonely.

Loving God, thank you for our capacities to be at home with one another and with you.

©2023 Mary Penich – All Rights Reserved