From Heaven to Our Hearts

One of the songs we hear at this time of year is “There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays.” But maybe the idea of being home for Christmas doesn’t always give you a warm feeling deep inside, or maybe it’s not even a possibility to travel home this year.

Home, for me, was sort of a blank when I was growing up. I never really had what you would call a home. We lived in houses, we lived in apartments, and we lived in hotel rooms. Sometimes, we stayed in other people’s houses. Because my mother was running around living her crazy life, I never had anything even resembling a home.

It got a whole lot better when Christ came into my life. And then I met Cathe, and we built a home with our two sons. It wasn’t a fancy home. In fact, we had furniture from the Salvation Army that was coming apart. But it was a loving home, and it was the first time in my life that I understood what home meant. And I actually wanted to be home.

I think deep down inside, we all long for home.

Jesus went from a heavenly home to a barn filled with animals. All so we could have a home in Heaven. We romanticize the story of His birth in Bethlehem, yet it really was a very cold, damp, unsanitary place for a baby to be born. But that is exactly where the Lord came to us: in a humble manger.

He was born so that we could be born again. Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (John 14:23 NKJV).

He left His home in Heaven to make a home in our hearts.