Home for Christmas – Sunday, December 12, 1982
Home. Home is where our mother and our father are. Home is where our children play and think about the holiday season and wonder what bright and beautiful surprises lie ahead. Home is where we long to be and where we need to be—especially at this time of year, when the spirit of the season reminds us that we are members of a family, that we are brothers and sisters, sons and daughters.
But our world is such that we cannot always be home. And there are many during this season who will not be with the ones they love. Our occupations, our educations, and other circumstances of our lives frequently draw us apart, separate us from that home for which we long.
But there is a way home. The birth of Christ promises that way home and not merely in the ultimate sense. Although geography may come between us, our love for one another—which is an emblem of the love of Christ—can make us one.
When Jesus prayed for His disciples, shortly before His crucifixion, He said, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee.”1
There is no substitute for being home. But just as “home is where the heart is,” the heart can take us home or nearly there. As Christ’s love reaches across the time and distance of creation to call us home to our Father, so our love for one another can be a bridge between family members pulling us closer together no matter how far we are apart.
So, in a sense there is a way home to one another and to God. Though we may have wandered far, the joy of Christmas is its promise that the star of Bethlehem is a true beacon, and a sure way home. Because of Jesus, because of His birth and ultimate sacrifice, because of Christmas, no one need wander or wonder; no one is without home or a way to find it.
1 New Testament, John 17:20,21.
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December 12, 1982
Broadcast Number 2,782