Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving

She came walking through the airport doors and for one moment in time, my heart stopped as I saw my sister shining through her daughter’s face. It took my breath away. And then the spell was broken as we gathered her in for hugs and welcome. She lives far away in California and our times together are too few and too short. She is my other daughter, my niece, the child I didn’t get to raise after my sister’s death. Her homecomings to my mother are even more precious now that my daddy is dead. Homecoming... a word full of meaning and feeling that conjures up images of warmth, affirmation, welcome and glad joyous reunion.
I have been blessed with homecoming all my life... people and places that call me to a life of deeper meaning. I live in the North Carolina mountains that have felt like my home on earth since I was a small child traveling through them on my way to Grandma’s house. I live on a farm that is an echo of all my childhood spent among farm animals and farm people. I am surrounded by a cloud of witnesses who remind me in the flesh and in memory of the Holy One who is our source of being. Everywhere I look, everything I touch, all that I hear, those who stand by me as friends and family, bring homecoming to my soul.
During this season of Thanksgiving Homecoming, my prayer is that we might all find a resting place for our bodies and souls, a place of joy filled glad reunion with the One who made us and those who are the skin faces of God Among Us. Welcome home. We have been waiting for you... Happy Thanksgiving.

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