I don’t remember much about the incident because I was probably only five. However, over many decades my mother filled in the details. What I do know is that I was not happy with the way things were going at home. And, I thought it best to leave in search of some place better!

It was winter and we had temporarily moved into the city to my grandparent’s house. During the cold months we lived there while they migrated to their sunny abode in Florida. This Victorian-style rental (circa 1890’s) had been partly converted into office space for a physical therapy practice. While my dad treated patients, I had cool upstairs rooms in which to quietly play or hide, and there was a mysterious room in the attic! What is not to like?

However, in time the novelty had worn off. At the self-determined age of five, I had grown dissatisfied with a few things. Then came that fateful winter day I will not, nor was allowed, to forget. The final straw for me was what I was going to be served for supper!

Naturally, I protested. But, this time my strong objections were met with an equally firm suggestion: If I did not like the way things were done then perhaps I should go find some place that better measured up to my standard of satisfaction! Not to be out matched, I rose up to my full height and called my mother’s bluff indicating that indeed, I would go! There. Surely I had her with that one. However I did not count on, nor was prepared for, her wise yet loving, response. Mom offered to help me pack.

We located a small child-sized suitcase. In it we carefully placed the selected “important” essentials: teddy bear, tooth brush, and P.J.’s. Finally, bundled in winter coat, snow pants, mittens, hat and wrapped around scarf I was ready. With suitcase in hand I boldly stepped out into the big cold world, in search of greener grasses (even though it was winter). Where can a man go to get a decent meal of his liking? Where would the sidewalk to my future lead me … ?

Image of a pencil sketch of child looking up porch steps
[Sketch by my mother – age 95,
as she remembered it]

I went next door.

The rest is blanked out in my mind, for obvious reasons of pride. However my parents, who watched with amusement from the side window, later recounted that I never really did reach the front door of the big, red-brick, Wickwire Mansion. I stood on their grand open porch for a time, apparently long enough to reconsider my options. Then once thinking better of it all, I slowly turned around and made my way back home.

Some say, “Home is where the heart is.” That day I learned, where I truly belonged.

Many people are still searching, seeking for a place to spiritually call home. There is dissatisfaction, emptiness, and dis-ease of the soul, in a big bad world where nobody seems to care, and you don’t believe you belong. For some, the search has extended far beyond just “next door,” only to find the endless, frustrating, wearisome, and lonely.

The Babe of Bethlehem, later Jesus of Nazareth, proclaimed, Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ~ Matthew 7:7 NIV.

On the first Christmas, Mary and Joseph knocked until they found a door opened to them; the door of a stable where Jesus was born. It was there where the seeking shepherds found their Christ, and an asking world was given a Son; the Son of God.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son … John 3:16 NIV

Many human hearts are empty, searching, seeking someone who can fill the void. After looking in all the wrong places many are realizing a need to return to the Someone that they had left in their youth. For some their journey ends, like the prodigal son’s, right back where they started — at home. If it is true that “Home is where the heart is,” and your heart is truly in Christ Jesus, then you are truly at home with Him to stay.

Where are you abiding these days? Maybe this year some special family member will not be with you for Christmas. Maybe you will be out of town, or away from family; away from home. But if your heart is in the Babe of Bethlehem, then you will be home for Christmas.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
~ John 15:9 ESV

—RWO/MAST