HOME

Hey sis, it was my birthday yesterday. I had an absolutely fabulous time, my children made sure of that….gifts, a spa session, dinner, icecream cake (chocolate flavored with brownie toppings and chocolate crunch inside… slurp!). Added icing on the cake was having another equally fabulous chocolate cake delivered to me, with love from my husband who is back home in Nigeria. We had kinda made peace with the fact that we would celebrate when I got back so I was not expecting that. I simply burst into tears! Love that guy, I truly do!

Err… did I hear you say something about chocolate, cake, chocolate cake, and hip-size? When I am regaling you about my husby’s romantic gesture? Wwhhaaattt? You didn’t go there did you sis? I know you didn’t, lol. Focus on the gestures of love and not on the calories, sis. Understood? Good girl! Now, where was I?

Ah! Yes. As I sat down to my morning coffee, I looked over my apartment and thought, ‘Wow, I’ve truly become one of those people with two-homes’. Literally! What am I on about? Well, time was in my life when I couldn’t at all relate with anyone living in one country and then maintaining a home in another. It didn’t make sense. That’s what hotels were for, I thought. Over time I came to understand it from an investment point of view, but I neither knew how to go about making such investments nor had the money to. Ultimately, this just kind of lost relevance in the scheme of things, in the day-to-day of doing life and certainly in the place of my maturing over time to where I had no mental real estate allocated to the more-than-one-home conversation. It was not part of my reality and that was that! Where am I going with this? Patience, sis. You’ll see.

The journey to how I have ended up with two homes is a topic for another day but suffice to say it made and still makes economic sense. Can I confess that I had to repent for some of the silly things I’d said anywhere between fifteen to twenty years ago regarding having a second home? Oh, I did, sis. I sure did! I finally got it, you see. Yeah, I don’t doubt that there are those who have homes overseas simply because of the impression it makes on the joneses, but I know now that there are more who simply put on a practical cap and got on with their new reality. With my children schooling overseas, the attendant costs for residency and meal plans, coupled with the foreign exchange rates, it simply makes economic sense. This morning though, I wasn’t sitting and marveling at the economics of my second home, but more so at the journey. I was reflecting on how my husband and I started out practically squatting with a friend of ours in her one bedroom, and how the Lord has brought us to where among other, we own the home we live in back in Nigeria, as well as this one. God has been beyond faithful sis, He certainly has! He is so good like that.

It was in the place of an intense surge of gratitude that the Lord dropped it in my spirit, ‘You’ve always had another home’. It was quiet, it was deep, and as I reflected on this, I saw that it was and is also quite true. Sis, I have always had another home, as have you. Even when we had a borrowed roof over our head, we had a home! We are in this world but not of it. This is God’s word to us, right? Praise God for Jesus, sis. Praise God for loving us so much as to send Jesus to die for us. This is our access card! This is the unbreakable heavenly tenancy agreement sealed in His Blood! This is our stamp of ownership, our title deed….Heaven’s consent to our piece of eternity! Halleluyah!

What a good time to be reminded about this, sis. I was speaking with my sister who turns 50 in another couple of days and she’d shared that someone close to her kept telling her to stop letting people know her true age. She’d refused and told him to go check how many of their age mates had already died. She has life, breath and so much to be thankful to God for, so she certainly wasn’t going to color His goodness over her life by hiding her age. I so got it, sis. I am as grateful for every single one of my 48years as I am for every single gray hair on my head. It’s simply a testimonial of God’s abundance in my life and I am honored to make boast in Him for the life He has given me. Thank You Lord!

My life, sis. My LIFE! My birthday was a celebration of life here on earth, but the whisper in my spirit about my other home was God saying to me that He celebrates me also by reminding me who I truly am. It was God telling me He is pleased with my journey in this realm but asking me not to forget my true home. Sis, this reflection this morning was the Holy Spirit calling me back to the place of spiritual focus. It was Him reminding me that whether I have one home, two or even more in this world, the only home that matters is my true eternal home….a home I have had since the day I gave my life fully to Christ. Halleluyah!

I’ve always had two homes, sis. The physical ones I have lived in here on earth…and my heavenly home, so have you. This is such a comfort to my soul. I am reminded as I reflect on the love and joy from yesterday, that there is an immeasurable love and unfathomable joy that awaits me when I finally transition from this realm back to the arms of the Father. I am again grateful this morning for my hope and future, for my sure expectation of an eternity with God. I am reminded of mercy that triumphs over judgement. I am reminded of love that does not deal with me according to my sin and failings. I bask afresh in a love, grace and mercy that transcends all my errors. I am expectant again that one day I will be called back into my eternal home where the fullness of who my spirit man is will truly find full expression, will find rest, will find joy.

Sis, the Lord would have me ask you today to look past that which is your physical earthly home…no matter how beautiful or drab, big or small it might be. He is asking that you take a few minutes today to be grateful that you have another home… an eternal home, a more excellent home, a more beautiful home…the only home that truly counts in the scheme of things. He is asking that you reflect on the completeness that awaits you there. He is asking that whatever your earthly achievements and struggles, you never lose sight of the fact that He has a prepared place for you…that you are one of the privileged few that will make it home in the end… that He has loved you and will always love you on and through  your journey back home.

Keep your eyes steadfastly on the eternal, sis. That is His message for us today. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Stay in alignment with God’s word, His will and His way. Let Him come first in your thoughts, your words, your decisions and your actions. Let His glory be your highest desire. Let your focus be on your true home, sis. We are literally just walking through this world, it is not our home. I pray the Holy Spirit will help you constantly keep this reality in the forefront of your daily life and walk, even as surely as He is helping me. We will make it home, sis. By the grace, power, mercy and love of God we will!

Be blessed sis….for you surely are!