Home Sweet Home

Home. It seems like an idea that is easy enough to understand, and for the last 40 years I can tell you exactly where my home was.  For the first eighteen years of my life, my address never changed.  My parents still live in the house where my brothers and sister and I were raised.  I had a tremendous amount of stability in my home life. Not long after college, Heidi and I got married and we bought our first home together.  Five years later, we sold our first home and bought another in Griffin, Georgia.  So, based on the way I grew up, I was practically nomadic!

Fast forward to this past October, we sold our second house and started renting a house in Griffin, Georgia. We knew we had to sell our house to answer God’s calling on our lives, after-all, we couldn't bring our house to Kenya!  On October 1st, Heidi, Gilly and I will begin our final training at Missionary Training International in Colorado in preparation for our departure to Kenya in January.  At the end of this month, we will move out of our rental house and be homeless, but will we still have our home?  I don’t know.  What is a home???  This has been a BIG question in the Griffiths' house lately..........

Webster’s Dictionary defines home in several different ways:

HOME ~1) one's place of residence:  2) a familiar or usual setting: 3) the social unit formed by a family living together: 4) the focus of one's domestic attention <home is where the heart is>

All of these definitions are correct, but I wondered how they apply to our situation as a missionary family.....The first definition, "one’s place of residence", I don’t think I can hang my hat on this one because we won’t really have a place to call our "residence".  I'm not even sure where our mail will be delivered!  
What about the next definition, "a familiar or usual setting"?   Maybe we can apply this one to our new way of living?  We will be visiting friends and family and enjoying a lot of pleasant and familiar settings in our home towns before we leave for Kenya. But when we move to Africa, our home towns and this familiarity will be far away.  Hmmmmm......

To me, a house and a home are very different things; a house is a place where people can go about their lives in close quarters and still be alone. Home is where the heart is, where love is shared.  So, the last two definitions are very intriguing.  "The social unit formed by a family living together" and "the focus of one’s domestic attention".  What else is formed when a family lives together?  Love, compassion, dedication, love, commitment, bonding, joy, did I say love?  To me, love is what creates a home with in the house.
When Heidi, Gilly and I move from one house to another, our home comes with us.  The old house stays where it is and will become another person's house someday, but our home is much more than just a structure, it's the emotions and connections that makeup a family unit. The love, happiness and support are palpable in a home. Sometimes the hurt, anger and discontentment are palpable, too. But a home is that soft place to land and a place in our hearts of familiar compassion and comfort that only happens when love is present.  For my family, no matter where our house may be in the world, our home will always be where we gather together as a family.  Home is where the heart is...in Griffin, Georgia or Kenya, Africa.  Thanks be to God!

Our Old House in Griffin, Ga

An Il Chamus House in Kenya, Africa