On Christmas Day, my wife, Julie, and I went to see “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.” Near the end of the film, Thorin, the King of the Dwarves, says to Bilbo, “If more people valued home above gold, this world would be a merry place.” He has been terribly wounded in the film’s signature battle. He says these words with his dying breath. Earlier, he was overwhelmed with Dragon’s Sickness, an ugly form of greed. As his life fades away, he realizes this singular truth: a place to call home is one of the greatest gifts any of us could ever desire.
Home has been on my mind a lot this year. Julie and I have done some major work around our house making it feel even homier. At the same time, our sons are quickly becoming young adults and will no doubt be planning to move away and establish their own homes and families. I’m also working on a book about my dad and what it was like to grow up as a preacher’s kid. By the time I was 17 years old I had lived in 18 houses and attended 13 schools, but I always felt most at home, no matter where we were living, with my siblings and parents. There is a lot more to my dad’s story and much of it is heartbreaking and difficult, but most of the time, when I was a kid, I just wanted to be with my family.
I am writing this while I am at home with Julie. I am off today. This morning she made a nice breakfast of eggs and bacon. I washed dishes. Later in the morning we reviewed our calendars for the year and planned for some time off in August.
There is nothing extraordinary about this day except for the simple joy of being at home with the one I love. There is a great line in Matthew’s gospel describing what Joseph did after he had a dream about Mary and the baby she was carrying: “When Joseph woke up he did as the angel commanded and took Mary home as his wife.” The first thing he gave his wife? A home. Oh, to be sure, they would soon be on the road to Bethlehem and later to Egypt before returning to Nazareth via Jerusalem. More often than not in Jesus’ first 12 years they were on the road and far, far away from extended family and friends. It’s not too hard to imagine that the first real lesson Jesus learned was very simple: home is that place where you go at the end of the day and someone is glad to see your face. No matter where we are, that is the place we call home.
Peace to you in the new year,
