Home

In Central Station in Glasgow last Tuesday, half an hour before the doors of the station were closed, I met my friend Pete. Like many others he was going "home" for Christmas - the hope of this happening was being gradually eroded; many eyes scanned the digital displays only to see the words "delayed" and "cancelled" repeatedly appearing.

There are times in our lives when we simply long to be "home".

In his book "Drops like stars" (a beautiful book - just to hold it is a pleasure!) Rob Bell begins by recounting the story Jesus told of a young person who longed to be home.

A son has deeply offended his Dad but returns home to forgiveness, and a party to celebrate his return. The older brother is infuriated by the injustice of the party for his brother. His Dad says, "We had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead but is alive, he was lost and is found."

Bell points out the incompleteness of the ending of the story, the story is left unresolved, he asks us to imagine the next scene, as the elder brother enters the party and the scene of the brothers reunion, "...they embrace and everyone at the party circles round and starts clapping and then the camera pans over to that one last shot - the one of the Father holding a glass of champagne and a smile on his face and a tear in his eye...but that's not how it always goes, is it?...some elder brothers never join the party, some father's never throw one, some brothers never come back, some things are never resolved, lots of parties are missing somebody..."

Bell wants to help us deal with this reality of life, that even when we have returned "home" to God, to his forgiveness and outrageous grace for us, not everything is going to be good and complete and superficial answers and solutions won't help "...it's not honest and it's not right and it's not real."

I'm looking forward to what the rest of the book holds...

Jen