Homecoming

My husband and I just attended a gathering of local alumni from The College of Wooster. I remember, during my own college days, the wonderful feeling of returning home on break. There are no words to adequately express that feeling of homecoming. And there are no words to express the joy of receiving our own children returning home.

Dear Lord, I will remain restless, tense, and dissatisfied until I can be totally at peace in your house. But I am still on the road, still journeying, still tired and weary, and still wondering if I will ever make it to the city on the hill. With Vincent Van Gogh, I keep asking your angel, whom I meet on the road: “Does the road go uphill all the way?” And the answer is: “Yes, to the very end.” And I ski again: “And will the journey take all day long?” And the answer is: “From morning till night, my friend.” So I go on, Lord, tired, often frustrated, irritated, but always hopeful to reach one day the eternal city far away, resplendent in the evening sun. There is no certainty that my life will be any easier in the years ahead, or that my heart will be any calmer. But there is the certainty that you are waiting for me and will welcome me home when I have persevered in my long journey to your house. O Lord, give me courage, hope, and confidence. Amen. ~Henri Nouwen, The Angel on the Road

Come, let us return to the Lord; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord; his appearing is as sure as the dawn; he will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth. -Hosea 6:1-3