The Shelter of Home

My home is in heaven; I'm just passing through this world. 

                          ~Billy Graham

This child, my Emily, how I miss her! Her summer job keeps her in Indy during the week. Daily texts and phone calls keep us in touch, but it doesn't take the place of knowing she's tucked under her music note comforter or curled up across from me reading.

I do know her job is a direct answer to prayer. Last year, I prayed for a summer job in a positive environment and I prayed for a mentor for Emily's college years. God gave me an "over and above" answer by combining the prayers into one. Don't you just love answers that are "exceedingly abundantly beyond what we could ask or think?" Sometimes I feel so spoiled by my Heavenly Father.

So we count the days and celebrate our time together on the weekends. Today I had fun getting ready for her.

The lamps were lit and candles burning...                  

Favorite treat and reading material waiting...

Table ready for Chinese supper...

Facebook conversation from this week:

Me: Tomorrow it will be one more sleep. Then I'll bring you home and feed you crumpets and tea.

Emily: Haha! Dry ones, I trust. Chocolate-covered and crunchyyyy.

Me: Crumpets aren't dry. Scones are. And definitely chocolate covered. Dark, because it's good for you.

Emily: Definitely dark, because it's my favorite now. And hopefully strooooong tea. My pinky's already up!

Me: They're sorta like pancakes and pancakes aren't dry. Besides, we're drizzling (read pouring) chocolate on them. 

Emily: Ooh ooh ooh...how about that new recipe? [Magic Chocolate that hardens on frozen foods] Of course, we could freeze the crumpets. Or maybe we could just buy those pre-frozen pancakes.

Me: Something tells me the English didn't use frozen pancakes.

Emily: So we will start a new tradition! I'll bring the Amish books! ♥

Me: Don't forget your hat and accent, mah dear!

So of course, this Momma had to make crumpets for dessert. Can we say delicious?

Oh how happy I am to look over and see Emily curled under a blanket, Kindle in hand, reading. She stops to laugh at her dad's funny stories, looks up to tell me something a daycare child said and decides crumpets are her new favorite food. She's home--and this momma loves it.

All day, as I prepared for Emily to come home, Heaven has been on my mind. Margaret Baxter asks, "Why should my heart be fixed where my home is not? Heaven is my home; God in Christ is all my happiness: and where my treasure is, there my heart should be."

I have to think that Jesus is going to be happy when I get to my Heavenly home. I know He's preparing it for me--it's a mansion, you know, this home with its streets of gold and gates of pearl. Jasper, emeralds, topaz, sapphires and more--such beauty in its foundation. The light of the glory of God will shine on the jewels, sending streaks of color across those golden streets. And oh, the banquet He's planning will make my crumpets taste like overdone veggies.

Just imagine Jesus, standing at those pearl gates, welcoming us home. 2 Peter 1:11tells us, "Therefore, my brothers and sisters...you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."  

Joni Erickson Tada said,  "What makes heaven exciting to me is being with the Lord Jesus where I will be perfectly and utterly at home."

Heaven -- where my heart is, where Jesus lives and where I'll be "perfectly and utterly" at home.