On Homecoming and Belonging




Have you ever been on a long trip and can't wait to get home? Perhaps you are arriving by airplane, and as the plane descends to the ground, you can finally see one again the city you know so well.  Perhaps you are driving by car and see the "Welcome to Colorado" sign by the interstate while John Denver's "Country Roads" plays from the CD and you know you're nearly there. Perhaps, as I imagine in my painting, you are in a spaceship and feel exhilaration and wonder as the little blue orb we call Earth comes around the Moon, and finally you are home. 

We all long for home, for belonging, for family. Where is your home? Where do you belong? Who are your people? 

Earth is my home. It's people are my people. I love them, I have compassion for them, I seek to understand them.

Colorado is my home. It was my first home, the place I grew up. The place I loved and cried to leave. My family and my ward were my people.

Provo is my home. My second home, the place I made my home and where I searched for my people. I found them in the GIS lab, where we laughed and learned and cried and belonged together. I found my people and my place in my ward as we served each other and grew together in the Lord.

The temple is my home. There I find and serve and love my family on the other side of the veil. There I feel the love of God for all His children. They are my people. 

The people of the Earth are my people and this is my home. 

But we are not home yet. For Heaven is my home and God is my Father and my King. He calls us home. He calls, "Please, come home to me."

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