Welcome Home

Welcome Home. Some of the sweetest words we all long to hear, long to read, long to know: Welcome Home.

Some of you have been reading pages of my journal for many years — some, perhaps, for the first time today.  I’m glad you’re here — I’m glad you’ve been here.  I’m a sporadic blogger but a daily reader and writer, and, this being the case, it’s probably disconcerting to readers to wonder when/if another entry will be written — I know it is to me. ~smile~
This past season’s been strangely tough for me – tough to figure out, tough to define, tough to understand. But I’m thankful for this past season of wondering, wandering, meandering. I’m thankful for what I’ve learned — learned about myself, learned about others, learned about the Lord.

The most important thing I’ve learned is that with God, it’s always: Welcome Home. It may not be so with others and it may not feel so with myself, but with God, it’s always: Welcome Home.  Others may reject you, mock you, shame you, judge you, walk away from you.  But not God. God’s always: Welcome Home. You may destroy your message, destroy your days with regret, destroy your hopes for a better tomorrow by dwelling on hoping for a better past — your regrets are Super-gluing your there.  But not God. God’s always: Welcome Home.

Had I not spent the last 8 years in and out of emotional turmoil, I’d not be able to surely tell you this today. I’d not be convinced that I know that I know that I know: God’s always: Welcome Home and the devil is always the super-gluing deceiver.  There’s no hope for a better past, but the devil will preoccupy you with your failings so that you have no hope of a better future.  So preoccupied have I been with my failings, disappointments, regrets, that I’ve been largely ineffective to “occupy till He comes.”

I’ve thought I need to daily admit to my failings as a distracted mother, wife, friend, follower of Jesus, so that no one will think I’ve forgotten my failings. Even my children who say, What are you talking about? I don’t remember that. So I remind them. I’ve thought I need to regularly rehearse them so that it won’t seem like I’m pretending I wasn’t distracted, never failed, or that I’ve forgotten.  That’s a lot of focusing on me, isn’t it?  That’s heavy self-centered burden, isn’t it?  And, it’s contrary to the message of the Cross, isn’t it?

I should have done better. I could have done better.  I would have done better had I realized I shouldda, couldda. But that’s not the reality. In reality, I didn’t.  And there’s not a single thing I can do about any of it. At all.  So… I’ve been doing differently.  And by the grace of God, I can see it’s all been to His glory.

And the thing I know is: God. God is always: Welcome Home.  The focus is on Him. The focus is Him. The focus is from Him.  So wherever you are today, reading the pages of my journal, I pray you too will know the freedom to go on, from today, knowing the Welcome Home of God. In Him is forgiveness. In Him is life–real life. And in Him is fullness of joy. There is NOthing you can do about your yesterdays and how you spent them. But there is something you can do about today.

Today, you can confess your sorrow, sin and regrets — and lay them all down — lay all your regrets/burdens down at the foot of the Cross (and say Thank You, Lord), and walk through the door of God’s Welcome Home and see what He wants you to do today.  Just do that.

Welcome Home.