What is "home"?

Perhaps it is a place where I raise a family; or, at least, a place where my body resides. It is a place where my friends can gather to talk, to share food, to play games. Home, on this planet, must be where I sleep and eat (most of the time). Home must be my shelter. When the summer sun beats down unmercifully, home provides a cool retreat. When the winter storms of the Midwest send shrieking gusts of icy wind that blows powdery snow into huge drifts, home must be safety from that freezing environment. Home must be warm, cozy, with perhaps a crackling fire in the fireplace, music playing; a place away from the blizzard blowing outside.

Our homes on this earth, however, are always deteriorating. Time takes away their structure and their beauty until, in the end, there will be no sign they even existed. Would God, Who is eternal, supply such temporal homes for His children? Certainly my home is subject to all kinds of disasters. Tornadoes can rip the roof off my home and earthquakes can dislodge it from the foundation and cause it to cave in on me. With that in mind, it is somewhat comforting to know that what I call a home on this planet, is nothing but a temporary dwelling place for this body. And this body appears also to be a temporary dwelling place.

So, when I ask, "How do I get home?" I don't mean to my home on this planet but to the other one--my REAL home?

In The Book of Lists, the 90s edition published in 1995, by David Wallechinsky and Amy Wallace, there are some fascinating stories of cats who came home after being lost or given away. Many of these stories teeter on the outside edge of logic. They simply cannot be true. But they have been verified. Checked out. Confirmed.

Sugar, a two-year old part Persian, was uncomfortable with traveling in a car because of a hip deformity. The family that was moving from Anderson, California to Gage, Oklahoma decided not to take this family pet and instead opted to leave it with a neighbor. Two weeks after the family waved good-bye, Sugar disappeared from the neighbor's home. Fourteen months later Sugar arrived in Gage, Oklahoma at the doorstep of the family that had left her behind. This cat had traveled roughly 100 miles a month to reach a place that she had never been.

I know that I dwell in my Father and my Father dwells in me (as a child of the Living God). I know that much of what I see is a trick of this world and that we are not to judge by appearances. I know that I am completely dependent upon my Father in order to awaken to reality. Is it my decision to do so? Sometimes this world presents what appear to be multiple choices but is it possible that ANY of the choices the world presents could be eternally helpful? Probably not. And, indeed, we can shift from one dream to another many times and never attain God's kingdom come on earth.

Now that I have accepted my Father and He is within, this tired and worn world does not have to have its grip on me. I know I no longer have to walk around with a sad expression on my face. But where, you say, is the road that leads to happiness? I believe with all my heart that even on this spinning planet with all its tricks and magic, God's love and joy can touch us but only through complete submission to Jesus Christ. Truly this road would be a road to a world that is part of God's reality, not part of the magic and tricks the world presents.

God's reality? Even here? How do I find it?

There's a large memory bank in our genes. Our DNA reeks of history. We cannot escape it. It took ages upon ages and generation upon generation for us to carefully etch upon our DNA blackboards, all the patterns I currently live by. Am I arrogant enough to think it can be erased in an instant?

Every single thought pattern that is changed with the Holy Spirit's guidance is erasing eons of habit patterns. Every single time I choose to submit to Jesus' love instead of being fearful, I am choosing to be at peace instead of choosing to be anxious. I am finding Jesus and enjoying the truth and being set free rather than dwelling on negativity. I am taking Jesus literally when He says "Come unto Me" (as a little child) and He alone will guide me out of error. I rejoice that this is true.

I have faith in Him. He will always give me all the information I need at any given time. I know that God will make sure (through His Holy Spirit) that I will always know what to say and what to do.

If God can set up the conditions for Sugar to prance 1400 miles to a "home" she's never been to, I believe God, through His Son, Jesus Christ, can show me the way to my home as well.

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