My middle daughter, ironically has a "middle ear" infection. Nothing serious, just a doctor's visit and a $125.00 trip to the pharmacist for designer antibiotics (she's allergic to regular penicillin - and, get this - the generic was more than the name brand). So,while waiting for the Rx to be filled, I get more good news. Come to find out the pharmacy, here in Little Elm, doesn't have a "public" restroom. Figures. Despite the fact that I'm shelling out $125 in cold hard cash - I can't flush their toilet!

Fine. My daughter and I walked down to the sandwich shop to use their restroom. Now, call it guilt, or call it noble, I don't care. But, I feel that I have to buy something from anyone offering me a potty...on road trips I feel the same way. If I stop at a gas station for some much needed relief - I buy a soda or an ice cream. I just believe there should be some reciprocity in the - albeit - brief relationship I have with those who supply the public with a place to go to the bathroom. So, I bought a couple of Dr. Brown's Cream Sodas. Yummy!

Anyway, as my daughter checked out the facilities, I checked out the decor. On the board that lists the daily sandwich and soup specials was a great quote. Now, I don't know if the person the quote was attributed too actually said it, but it sounds like something he'd say. The quote was from Bill Cosby, and said, "Human beings are the only creatures in nature that allow their children to come back home."

If Bill is right, then once a kid, a joey,a fawn,a cub, or a chick, is old enough to fend for itself, it is abandoned. The parents go out for dinner one night and as Bruce Springsteen says, they "took a wrong turn and they just kept going." Or maybe the cub goes out to chase some antelope with a few friends from around the corner on the Serengeti; and while gone, mom and dad pull up stakes, run off, and leave no forwarding address. In nature, offspring are eventually deserted and forsaken.

Reading, and re-reading, Bill's quote, I had a momentary lapse in time. (You've all done this, where your head runs off somewhere you're body isn't...some call it day dreaming, I call it a mini-vacation.) So, rooted to the floor in a sandwich shop, I flew away in my head and pictured all sorts of deserted animals. Some of those marooned kids were ready to tackle the world, some were in need of additional cuddling and nuzzling. Some of those who were discarded were full of courage and independence, others were smaller and less able and needed protection and encouragement.

TAP, TAP, TAP, on my arm and my insides went electric as I was jolted back into the present. "Daddy, are these for us," my little girl said pointing at the sodas sitting on the table. There she stood, a child who needed to be able to come home. A little girl who needed to be nurtured while sick, told she is precious in my eyes, reminded she will always be loved, and that God made her special...Obviously, children need to be able to come home.

But here is the thing that washed over me as I stood in that sandwich shop. Children are not the only ones who need to be able to go home. Full grown adults, with jobs and children of their own, need to come home too. Now, maybe I don't need to go home to the house of my youth (which one?), and maybe I don't need to be coddled and told, "Oh, the big bad world is a mean ol' place." But I don't want to be abandoned either. See, there has to be a place, home - if you will - where I am accepted. There has to be a safe zone, a place where I know no one is out to get me, and I don't have to constantly watch my back - afraid it will get chewed on if I'm not careful. I need to be able to come home and have people hug me, and tell me how much I'm loved - not because of what I do or have done - just because I'm me.

What contrasting pictures. Abandoned or Accepted. Deserted or Adored. Forsaken or Forgiven. When I read Bill's quote, "Human beings are the only creatures in nature that allow their children to come back home," the picture I got was of a story Jesus tells in Luke. In a reversal of nature, a father has been renounced by his child. Yet, the child - who has run off - eventually needs to come home. He doesn't know if he can. He doesn't know what coming home will mean or what it will look like, he just knows HOME is better than any other possible place. And - well, you know the story - the child is allowed to come home. He isn't just allowed, but he is welcomed. He isn't just welcomed, but the derserting child is celebrated. The Father runs to meet him, throws himself on his son's neck and showers him with hugs and kisses. Human beings are the only creatures in nature that allow their children to come back home. Oh, I love to come home.

Although, Bill's statement maybe exactly true in describing human nature, there is something more in his observation. Maybe, Bill has hit upon a divine truth. Maybe this isn't just truth about human nature, but maybe it is insight into the heart of what God desires for His people.

Coming home - a literal place where those we love do welcome us back.
Coming home - a spiritual place where a community of faith nurtures the ill and broken back to health under its protection and care.
Coming home - a heavenly place where God, the Father, will run to me, fall upon my neck, kiss me, and with great fervor, say, "Welcome Home, my son, my son. We've so been waiting for you."