Home. It is meant to be a place of love, support, growth, forgiveness, encouragement, honesty and new beginnings. Later this week, we will get a closer view of the grace of homecoming when a wayward son returns home.
Homeland. Countries value their homeland as well. Israel was freed from slavery in Egypt, but had wandered 40 years in the wilderness before they returned to the homeland that God promised them. They celebrated the removal of the chains of slavery in Egypt and looked for new beginnings in this new homeland. Passover was celebrated with the assurance that God delivers us from those things that enslave and bind us.
A devotional writer said, "Home is where God is." We know we are at home when we meet as church around God's gracious, freeing Word and the Holy Communion that reconciles us as brothers and sisters in Christ. Welcome home.
