Homecoming
Tuesday, December 24, 2024
In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. John 14:2, 3, NIV.
As we crested the hill, I saw hometown lights aglow with the shimmer of softly falling snow. Christmas Eve. To the left was the huge lighted star on the Flatiron. And to the right, lights stretched far beyond the city limits that we had known as children.
Boulder was beautiful. But it was not the glistening lights that held the meaning-it was the love that was waiting for us in that double-wide mobile home where we would find family.
Our other siblings, Dianne and Richard, and their families were going to be with our parents for Christmas, so Joanie, my other sister, and I, who were living in California, decided to surprise everyone and just show up with our families.
At last we pulled up in front of the house. A soft light filtered through the frosted windows. Our parents were home. All nine of us (two sisters, our husbands, and five children) piled out of the van. We pulled our woolen hats down over our faces and turned up our collars so as not to be recognized too quickly, rang the doorbell, and started singing, “Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright . . .”
We finished the verse and started the second, but no one opened the door. We could hear voices inside. “What shall we give the carolers, cookies or money?” At last my mom opened the door with a plate of cookies in her hand. Suddenly she recognized us. “Daddy,” she yelled, “the kids are home.”
I’ll never forget those next few moments. Daddy jumped out of bed, and in his bright-red ski pajamas ran right out on the porch and gave us all bear hugs. What a homecoming!
And we have never been sorry we drove more than 1,000 miles to get home for Christmas. It was the last Christmas Daddy was alive. He died of a heart attack the next Thanksgiving.
Now I’m looking forward to another homecoming, when our family will be reunited in a land even more beautiful than Boulder, Colorado, with its glistening snow on Christmas Eve. I’ll be watching for you there.
Family homecomings are marvelous occasions. Why not start planning for one today?
As we crested the hill, I saw hometown lights aglow with the shimmer of softly falling snow. Christmas Eve. To the left was the huge lighted star on the Flatiron. And to the right, lights stretched far beyond the city limits that we had known as children.
Boulder was beautiful. But it was not the glistening lights that held the meaning-it was the love that was waiting for us in that double-wide mobile home where we would find family.
Our other siblings, Dianne and Richard, and their families were going to be with our parents for Christmas, so Joanie, my other sister, and I, who were living in California, decided to surprise everyone and just show up with our families.
At last we pulled up in front of the house. A soft light filtered through the frosted windows. Our parents were home. All nine of us (two sisters, our husbands, and five children) piled out of the van. We pulled our woolen hats down over our faces and turned up our collars so as not to be recognized too quickly, rang the doorbell, and started singing, “Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright . . .”
We finished the verse and started the second, but no one opened the door. We could hear voices inside. “What shall we give the carolers, cookies or money?” At last my mom opened the door with a plate of cookies in her hand. Suddenly she recognized us. “Daddy,” she yelled, “the kids are home.”
I’ll never forget those next few moments. Daddy jumped out of bed, and in his bright-red ski pajamas ran right out on the porch and gave us all bear hugs. What a homecoming!
And we have never been sorry we drove more than 1,000 miles to get home for Christmas. It was the last Christmas Daddy was alive. He died of a heart attack the next Thanksgiving.
Now I’m looking forward to another homecoming, when our family will be reunited in a land even more beautiful than Boulder, Colorado, with its glistening snow on Christmas Eve. I’ll be watching for you there.
Family homecomings are marvelous occasions. Why not start planning for one today?
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
Previous | Today | Next