I'll be home for Christmas....

Two and a half months ago I was having a gnarly case of homesickness. There really is nothing like “home” for the holidays. The problem in my case is that well… for five years I basically had two homes.

I LOVE getting to spend time with my family and taking part in all of our fun and crazy traditions where even though my brothers and I are “adults” now (I use that term very loosely), we still love getting our PJs Christmas Eve and watching the Grinch. We love the whole process of waking up Christmas morning and waiting for our parents before we open presents. We love the excitement of wondering what we got and then squealing with glee as our “wish list” gets taken care of one by one. We know that’s not what Christmas is all about but it’s just fun.

Although I have absolutely loved being home for Christmas, I will confess it was tough one this year as this was not how I was expecting this Christmas to be. I thought I was going to be celebrating my first Christmas with my husband back in Jinja with our own little tree and making our own traditions. But God had other plans… It is bitter-sweet times like this that I have to recognize that He has the authority to change our plans and that you never know what is going to happen next year, next month, or even in the next hour.

I don’t know how you were able to celebrate Christmas this year or whom you were with but my encouragement to you is this: soak it up for all it’s worth. Each and every person God has placed in your life is a gift, be it a grand parent, a parent, sister/brother, a spouse, or just a friend. Life changes, people come and go, and you never know what will happen in the future.

The good thing is that 1) He and His love never changes and 2) this world is not our ultimate home. Our real home is a place where we will no longer experience heartache, sadness or pain and it’s in that hope that I have to rest in these difficult times.