Home.

Home is an interesting concept to me these days.  I've made an effort not to refer to the US as home in order to encourage myself to think of Managua as home.  After only 4 short months, I truly believe by God’s grace, I can call Managua home but not because I don’t still consider North Carolina home.

We all know those cheesy one liners, “Home is where the heart is” or the most recent “Home is where I am with you” and these must have become popular because they ring true for so many of us.  Now, don’t get confused, I don’t have any one person that encourages me to call any one place home but I believe that the community that God surrounds me with wherever I go helps me to call each new place home.  

Asheville will always be home because my family is still there, the house I grew up in is there, my life long friends are (kind of) there, the memories I have start from there.  I love going back to the mountains.  I love spending time with family and seeing old friends.  Asheville is home. 

Raleigh is also home.  Raleigh is where I started to become the woman I am still becoming.  God used my 6+ years there to help me know him better.  He showed me what it means to live in sweet community.  He showed me what it is to love him beyond anything else and without anything else.  For anyone who has gone to college, you understand that the college community is unmatchable.  The friends I made in Raleigh will also be lifelong friends.  Go Wolfpack! Raleigh is home. 

Managua is home.  Managua is quirky with it’s ox carts (that make me laugh every time which is almost daily), its apparent chaos yet somehow slower paced life.  Managua is teaching me so much and I know the lessons will just keep coming.  The community that surrounds me here is new and different.  It’s people from many cultures who teach me more about how dynamic God is.  Managua is home. 

Home to me now means the glimpses of heaven, glimpses of the ways it was always meant to be.  The laughter at the Christmas dinner table with family, the late night chats with friends, the Young Life Winter Training/New Staff worship where 500 voices proclaim the goodness of our God, the warm sun and the cool breeze, the way things are meant to be.  

Now, let’s be honest, all of these places also have their qualms about them too.  The weather, the traffic, the bugs, the lack of this or the too much of that, and these things also help me to remember that there is more to life than the homes we create for ourselves on earth.  I don’t have to choose any of these to be HOME because none of them really are.  All of them remind me of what’s the come, the new Heaven and the new Earth.  The day we get to reconciled to God.  The day everything will be made new, set right.  So, until that day comes, I will be thankful for the many places that I get to call home.  The many gifts that point me back to Jesus.  The many people who reflect Him.  The many places that long to be set right with the Father in the same way I do.