SAFE AT HOME

This time of year in Casa Grande, AZ, we begin bidding farewell to friends returning home after the winter season. Home is always in another state or province. Some long to go home to beloved family and neighbors, or just to plant flowers and see how the house survived the winter. One man even said he longed to shovel a little snow before spring came - imagine that!

One of my favorite symphonies is Antonin Dvorzak's New World Symphony #9 which he wrote after visiting America during the 19th Century. In it he incorporated the haunting melody from a spiritual called "Going Home." Its opening words are: "Going home, going home, I'm just going home."

Yesterday Carol and I watched another kind of home going during a Rockies pre-season baseball game. For the first few innings, our team could not bring a runner home no matter what. The other team brought a couple of its runners across home plate, but our team could not.

Then came the seventh inning. Friends with us decided to leave early, so they missed all the action. It started when the opposing pitcher couldn't find home plate or the strike zone. He walked three batters, gave up a hit and loaded the bases with no outs. He walked one of our boys home, then another. Then he hit a batter scoring another run and was replaced. The new pitcher immediately allowed a long fly ball, the catcher threw high during a base steal, and one of our new boys hit a three run homer. In all, eight players made it safely home as the Rockies beat the Padres 11-2. Twice the umpire shouted, "Safe!" as a runner crossed home plate. It is a fun game when your players come home more than theirs do.

"Safe at home" - that has a good sound to it. It is said home is the place that if you go there they have to take you in. We all have a home somewhere, a dwelling with people, memories and hopefully lots of love. Carol and I have two houses, one small and another even smaller, and we've made both of them our home. Yet we know the earthly homes we have are not our eternal home. That home will be with the Lord, as He told us in John 14:2, "In my Father's house are many rooms... I am going there to prepare a place for you."

Jesus once healed a man with demons and then told him, "Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you." (Luke 8:39) We will meet many loved ones in God's Eternal Home for us, and I pray that all who read this will one day join us there.

Meanwhile, we can enjoy our homes here and share what God has done for us.