THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD

The weather here in Fort Worth has been quite the story in the recent weeks.  The past few days have been filled with tornado and thunderstorm warnings--and RAIN---frog strangling rains.  How much rain would it take to strangle a frog?  I have felt as if I might wash off the side of this hill my street is built on.  Thankfully I am at one of the highest points in Fort Worth---thus the name--Mistletoe Heights.  

What if I did wash off this hill or get blown away by a tornado?  Would I find my way back home?  Does a house and my things make this a home?  If all were blown away---destroyed beyond recognition--would I no longer have a home?  As you watch survivors shuffle through debris looking for their things, I wonder--would finding something help?  I understand their pain---we mistakenly identify home as bricks and mortar and things.  This very weekend, I told my daughter, how much I missed my home on Old Wire Road. It has seemed at times, I have never had a home since moving away.  What if instead of moving, the house had burned, or a tornado destroyed it, would I feel the same way?  This process began the wheels turning.

While volunteering at the shelter for the homeless, I have noticed one thing--their family is their home.  They have no desire to continue to live in a dormitory setting, and certainly would like a place of their own--BUT these people love their children and family is important to them.  Family is all they have in many cases.  Watching these moms and dads bring their children for tutoring, I see they want them to behave, they want them to do well, they drink in words of praise for their children.  They have no bricks and mortar--but they have a family and it is home.

I came to the conclusion, home is in my heart--not in those bricks and mortar--not in any one location.  Home is the deep abiding love for my family--my friends--my God.  Home is not confined to the walls surrounding me, but instead forever lives in the deep recesses of my heart.  Those memories will always be there---oh I might have to go around the track a few times to dredge some of them up--but they are there.  Memories of not places--but occurrences that happened in places. 

So when the storms of life come--and they will--is your home going to be blown away?  If the walls surrounding you do not look the same, have you lost your home? Will your home be destroyed and you with it, if all is washed away?

No-- There is a yellow brick road---a path--that God provides to show us the way home.  Home within the confines of a deep protecting love of the Father.  God gives us a home--a safe and secure  home which will never be destroyed--the home He provides by His grace.  So keep your eyes on the path--the yellow brick road to the Father, and live in the peace of your forever home---God's deep abiding love.

We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

I John 4:16