And Outgrown Label.

This past weekend I went home to Iowa. It was a short trip, only about 50+ hours, mostly doing wedding planning with Bethany and talking with my mom and dad. I came back with lots of homework to do, but with a refreshed spirit to do it.

But "home" is a funny thing for me. It used to be a place, a definitive four walls that I could point to and name. But things have changed. I have changed. My "home" is scattered and stretched. My sister doesn't live in the four walls that we named "home" and I have a soon-to-be brother-in-law that never has. But he is part of home. I have 30 girls on this floor in downtown Chicago. They are home to be. I have a small group of girls that let me undefensibly be myself. Isn't that the essence of "home"? Isn't that what we mean when we say we're going "home"; that we're going where we belong?

I've outgrown the label, I think. When I was in Iowa, my siblings kept asking me when I was going "home". I kept replying, "I am home." They'd laugh and ask when I was going back to "school". But isn't Moody part of home to me? Isn't Haiti part of home also? And Namibia and Katelynn's room and Grace Community Church and Steph's apartment and my family's kitchen island and the deck and downtown Chicago? People make home what it is. My family has made Iowa home; and what a wonderful, special, unique, comforting home it is. My girls have made Chicago the exciting and challenging home that it is. Josie and Romie and Melinda and Sylvia and Theonette and Ebshin makes Namibia the adventurous and learning home that it is.

Jesus makes heaven the relieving and exhaling home that it will be.

Yes, "Home" is a funny thing.