Reflecting Home

Gerrit Dawson wrote an article a number of years ago about  hearts seeking their home in God. He compared that longing to the separation family members feel when a loved one is away on a long business trip, a military tour of duty, or away at college.  That longing of a heart for home is the example Dawson used to compare God’s longing for us, and our heart’s longing for God.  Gerrit shared several components of preparing one’s heart for God.

Gathering Glory

Just as Paul likened our interrelationships in the family of God to interconnected parts of a single body, Gerrit also emphasized the overwhelming joy of gathering again after being too long apart.  In his article, Gerrit mentioned his son who was doing too good of a job of being independent and self-sufficient in college for the family’s liking, as the son never came home across his first year and  never called (unless he needed money).

However, Gerrit describes a rather mundane afternoon on the eve of the Easter holiday in which he pulled into his driveway and found himself confused by a strange car in his driveway. After a half a minute, he realized the vaguely familiar car belonged to his son!  Startled and excited, he ran in to find his had come home for the week of Easter break—with a friend (without having called ahead).  He described his reaction:

  “So he wasn’t gone forever, after all! Unsolicited, undemanded, he came back. We spread out a feast! Nothing was too fine! Our son had come home. Suddenly, every sneaker was picked off the living room floor, every schedule rearranged to accommodate his needs. In a million mundane ways we… write the welcoming love of Christ inside each member [of the church].”

 Filling Station

Second, Dawson described his own feeling of coming back home after a week long meeting environment of wrangling and divided opinions (which sounded like annual conference for clergy and laity!) his need was simply to come in the door to rediscover his “stillpoint” in this one place in the world he called “home.”  Entering to sit in familiar furniture, allowing the dog to run in circles before finally settling to rest at his feet, and watching the familiar delight of sunlight dancing through the branches in the usual view out the back windows, Gerrit mused a question of what the outside world might ask by observing his coming home ritual: “Is this wasting time?”

In a demonstrative response he wrote, “No! The goodness of home was seeping back into my body and soul.  I was [back] in the place I could be refilled… The fountain of God… welled up through home and me anew.”

Finally, Gerrit realized, he had slowed down enough to allow his own spirit to catch up with his heart and to find home in God.

~Sonny