A Place Called Home

The holidays are a time of the year during which we think about home.  The twinkle of Christmas lights and strains of an old carol bring a wave of nostalgia.  The traditions we revisit annually evoke the traditions we grew up with.  Every party and every seasonal meal and every gift brings warm associations – thoughts of home.

Yet our nostalgia bears a bittersweet quality.  At every gathering there are empty spaces around the table.  Every time we create a new home we long for some lost part of a home we once knew.  There's alway the lingering sense that something is missing.

This is the human experience.  The Bible teaches that we were created for home.  Its story begins with an account of the life God intended us to have.  The picture includes an overabundance of the good things needed to sustain us; good gifts for us to enjoy; true peace and harmony between people, the world around us, and God.  Kind of like our memories of Christmases past.  All of us have a sense that this is what life should be like all the time - not just once a year.  We’re left asking: what happened to that original, good state we enjoyed?  And is there a way to get it back?

My congregation, First Christian Reformed Church, will explore these two questions during Advent 2012.  If you want to know more, please join us.

Here’s our Advent schedule:

Dec. 2: Message: It Was Good (Passage: Genesis 1:26-31a)

Dec. 9: Message: Are We There Yet? (Exodus 13:17-22)

Dec. 16: Meeting God (Exodus 19:1-9; 20:18-21)

Dec. 23: Looking for Lost Children (John 4:1-26)

Christmas Eve – Dec. 24, 6:00 p.m. (Lessons and Carols):  A Place Called Home.

First Christian Reformed Church is located at 1444 Maryland, Grosse Pointe Park, MI 48230. Find us on the web at grossepointecrc.org.