What Is A Home?

The mystery of the missing fluid for the clutch in my old truck is solved. Upon opening the bell housing we found a community of small animals. One was dead and the others went running across the garage floor. The leaking fluid was being absorbed by the nesting material they made out of insulation from other parts of the truck. I wonder how long they lived in there and how many trips they made with me back and forth to school?

It takes all kinds of homes for God’s creatures but the bell housing of a truck is not one of the better ones. Bears have dens. Birds have nests. Dogs have blankets. Cats have houses they allow humans to live in. Kings have palaces. Rich people have mansions. The rest of us have apartments or regular houses.

What actually constitutes a home? When I am returning from school I do not mentally feel like I’m home til I pull in the driveway. However, if I have been on a really long journey I feel like I’m home when I arrive at the outskirts of my town. Robert Frost once defined home as “the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” Why the expression “have to?” It is either because of obligation or because of love. Most likely it depends on the particular case. In the case of our heavenly Father I believe the “have to” is love. There was no way the father could have refused the prodigal son upon his return. There is no way our heavenly father can refuse us.

Written by Roger Bothwell on August 7, 2003
Spring of Life, 151 Old Farm Rd. Leominster, MA 01453