And all of a sudden I’m coming home to a place I’ve never been.
I think that maybe I should be overwhelmed but I’ve never felt more content.
The lights are glowing through the windows. It’s bright but it’s not too bright. Even though there’s a chill outside, it's warm in here. I can hear people laughing in the other room, and they’re all my best friends, who I’ve never met before, except somehow I’ve known them all my life. And we’re sitting around a table, yelling and singing and shouting about all of the things we’ve done together and everything we have yet to do. We’re complete strangers and we’re a family.
And there’s a carpenter from Nazareth that’s built this home for us in Raleigh. He’s prepared the table. He’s prepared our hearts. Each path that He’s led me down until now has felt like I’m walking with a blindfold, but now the blindfold is being pulled away to reveal a party, with the entire Kingdom on the guest list. Everyone at the party is shouting WELCOME HOME – and I’m home. They say we get slices of heaven here on earth, and if that’s true, oh baby. I can’t wait to taste the entire cake.
I’m greeted by strangers who aren’t strange to me at all. As I learn so many new faces and names I can’t help but think about how we will all get to spend eternity together.
Even though I’m still figuring out what it is I’m being called to do, but I know exactly where I’m called to be. I may not know where this road is going, but I know the One who paved it.
22 is a year of a lot of transitions. New job. New city. New friends. And yet, I know that I can trust that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. I know that I can lean on this community when I start to forget that. I’m here walking in the footsteps of everyone who’s gone before me, and I can rest in the history that this program and community have written over the last 15(?) years, and one that the Lord’s been writing for a bit longer than that.
Each month I’ll be gracing your computer screen with a collection of pictures to encompass whatever I’ve been feeling. This month, it’s Home. Not home in its simple earthly sense; this is something greater than you and I. This is Home where you’re wrapped in the arms of the Father and the entire world rejoices when someone new walks through the door. Here’s a little glimpse into some moments that have felt like Home.
Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow
Madelyn
