Going Home

We just came back from a weekend out of town. Tomorrow (Monday) is our 35th anniversary, so we spent the weekend in Northwest Kansas where we met and it all began. There was a bed and breakfast in the community and we stayed there, toured the town, reminisced, drove by places where we used to hang out, live, work, etc., and generally had a good time.
However, that place seemed to be a totally “other world” from what I now know. Always before when we would visit there for some reason, it seemed like a place that was inviting and comfortable. And although I felt comfortable and welcome there, it wasn’t quite the same as it had been before.
I don’t know what changed, but at the close of lunch with friends at a restaurant, I told my wife (quietly) that I was ready to go. As we left the restaurant, I told her that it was time to go home (meaning that I was ready to get back to where we live). I felt no “longing” to stay as the community receded in the rear-view mirror.
I may not be there yet, but one of these days I hope to be able to say the same things about going home to the place that Jesus is preparing for me. As the song says (I can’t remember its name), “There’s nothing to keep me here,” referring to making that final trip at death. The longer I live the more I understand that there really is nothing here that is so important that going home will have to wait.
All in all it was a great weekend of remembering, and sometimes forgetting what I should have remembered. We are blessed to have been able to do it and look forward to the next 35 years.