Homecoming

I love people watching at an airport.  You see all types of people; carefree college travelers with backpacks, stressed out businessmen on cell phones, excited vacationing parents chasing little ones.  I always wonder what each person’s story is, where they are going and why.  I especially enjoy seeing loved ones greet each other after time apart.

There is nothing like the feeling of seeing that special someone stumble into a busy airport terminal full of people, searching the crowd for you. I remember one winter when my husband, Dustin, went on a ski trip to Canada for several days.  It was the most time we had spent apart since we meet.  The days dragged on and finally the hour arrived when I was to pick him up at the airport.  I searched baggage claim waiting for his familiar gaze.  The moment our eyes connected we bounded toward each other with a warm hug and kiss.  I had missed him so much, and he had missed me too.  The whole ride home we talked about what had happened during his time away from home.  It felt so wonderful to have the most special man in my life beside me once again.

I always find it amusing watching hired drivers greet individuals at an airport.  The driver, usually in uniform, holds a sign with the traveler’s name on it.  He stares blankly into the crowd hoping the passenger sees him.  It’s a totally different scene when the two spot each other.  I have yet to see them greet each other with a big hug or watch them walk away arm in arm discussing the latest news.  Obviously this doesn’t happen because the two have never met.  They don’t know each other at all.  They have absolutely no ties to one another.  They have no relationship.  They are strangers.

            This crossed my mind the other day when I was shopping and caught a glimpse of the painting entitled “Home at Last” by Danny Hohlbohm.  In it, Jesus is welcoming someone to heaven with a giant hug and warm smile.  The painting reminded me that our journey here on earth eventually will lead us to the ultimate homecoming in heaven.  When we arrive Jesus, who will have been anxiously awaiting our arrival, counting the hours until He can tell us all the things we have missed being here on earth, will greet us.  I also thought about how sad it would be to enter in to eternity without a personal relationship with Jesus.  It would be like reaching heaven and seeing Jesus standing there a perfect stranger, with no warm embrace, no loving smile. 

            Jesus wants to be our best friend, our shepherd and our father.  He wants to be the most important person in our life, sharing our joys, comforting and guiding us through trials, and blessing us with gifts along the way.  He wants us to talk to him, not just before mealtime, but all throughout the day.  Not in formal prayers, although there is a time for that, but in little whispers sprinkled through our day’s problems and happy moments.  He wants to talk back to us, not in an audible voice booming from the heavens, but in a thought that jumps in our mind, or a feeling deep in our heart to do something, or in a circumstance we find ourselves in. 

Jesus wants to pick us up when we are down using His words in the Bible or by sending the perfect person in our path.  He wants us to recognize that He made the incredible sunset we are watching, and it was His design that made intricacies of the human body.  He wants us to thank Him as we take in all life’s beauty and miracles.  He wants us to realize He loves us so much that He sacrificed His residency in heaven to come to earth, live a life in poverty and shame, and die on a cross for our sins, so we can meet Him in heaven one day.  He wants us to take that seriously, and realize the weight of our sin and how it has separated us from God, and how we could not have earned our way to haven without his payment.  He wants us to try to stop sinning and live a life that honors Him, so that His relationship with us can grow and become stronger.  He wants all of this, so when He greets us in heaven we will be longtime, intimately acquainted friends, not strangers.

When I reflect on the fact that Jesus, the creator of the universe, cares about the little speck that is me, it blows my mind.  I am so thankful he loves me and wants my love in return.  As I’ve gotten older I’ve realized how wonderful that homecoming in heaven will be, when Jesus greets me with a hug, and as promised, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:4.