i will grow you & feed you there.: if only in my dreams

i'm dreaming tonight of a place i love

even more than i usually do

and although i know it's a long road back

i promise you

i'll be home for christmas

you can count on me

please have snow and mistletoe

and presents under the tree

christmas eve will find me

where the love light beams

i'll be home for christmas if only in my dreams

christmas eve will find me

where the love light beams

i'll be home for christmas

if only in my dreams

as the holidays roll around, the thoughts of home cross our minds more often. we think about taking a plane, a train, a bus or a car to the place we call "home." there are numerous songs, poems, books & movies about this word...home...what is it?

home is...

where the wifi connects automatically,

where you can drink straight from the carton,

where family lives,

where a bookshelf full of your imaginary worlds reside,

where a room stores all your possessions,

where you can laugh & cry without worry,

where you're deepest desires & burdens can be shared,

where you welcome others,

where you make sweet memories,

where you get into bed each night,

where you fee loved & open to be yourself,

where you decorate the walls & put furniture,

the list goes on & on...

can it be more than one place? how long does it take to call a place home? can you have more than one home? is it even a place? is it a feeling?

home is where the heart is

where you are, i am home

"when i look at you, i'm home." (dory speaking to marlin)

for harry, it's at hogwarts
for the weasleys it's the burrow
dorothy spoke of it while tapping her red shoes together saying, "there's no place like home"
home sweet home
homesick
homeward bound
home for the holidays

one of my favorite movies is garden state & there's a great scene about home...

andrew: you know that point in your life when you realize the house you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? all of a sudden even though you have some place where you put your stuff, that idea of home is gone.

sam: i still feel at home in my house.

andrew: you'll see one day when you move out it just sort of happens one day and it's gone. you feel like you can never get it back. it's like you feel homesick for a place that doesn't even exist. maybe it's like this rite of passage, you know. you won't ever have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start, it's like a cycle or something. i don't know, but i miss the idea of it, you know. maybe that's all family really is. a group of people that miss the same imaginary place.

"a group of people that miss the same imaginary place." for believers in Christ, there is a place we long to be. the place where He is & where He calls us to be. in john 14, Jesus says, "do not let your hearts be troubled. trust in God, trust also in Me. 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. you know the way to the place where I am going." 2 corinthians 5:1-10 speaks of our heavenly dwelling. it speaks of an eternal home we have in heaven. one which is not built by men, one which we long for, one which He has waiting for us. it is this home i find most comforting. this home is wherever He is. wherever we are, we are home in Him. we can rest in Him & find comfort in Him. so as i spend my first christmas away from "home" i will take great delight in knowing He is home. i will cherish the precious memories of past christmases at "home" & i will look forward to those yet to be made.

links to some songs about home...

switchfoot's "home"

birdy's "home"

dave barnes' "home"

quotes about home...

winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home. -edith sitwell
thank you. mr. rochester, for your great kindness. i am strangely glad to get back again to you: and wherever you is my home-my only home. -charlotte brontë in jane erye
the ache for home lives in all of us. the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned. -maya angelou
i believe that one can never leave home. i believe that one carries the shadows, the dreams, the fears and the dragons of home under one's skin, at the extreme corners of one's eyes and possibly in the gristle of the earlobe. -maya angelou
a true home is one of the most sacred of places. it is a sanctuary into which men flee from the world's perils and alarms. it is a resting-place to which at close of day the weary retire to gather new strength for the battle and toils of tomorrow. it is the place where love learns its lessons, where life is schooled into discipline and strength, where character is molded. - j.r. miller
home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration. -charles dickens
for he came to perceive that since people were his study, his teachers, the objects through which he could satisfy his persistent wonder about life itself, his own being among others, wherever he lived for the moment, there was his home. pearl s. buck