Home is Where the Heart Is

When I was four years old, my dad took a giant leap of faith and made a career change at the age of 37.  He had been a salesman for Kraft Foods before surrendering to God's call on his life to be a pastor.  Our family of five packed up our house in Louisiana and moved to Texas so my dad could go to seminary.  That was my first move.  Two years later, my dad was hired as the pastor at a small church in central Texas.  Our family moved again.  One year later, we moved again.  Five years after that we moved again.  Almost 6 years later, I moved away for college.  Four years later I moved to Texas to marry my handsome husband.  And five years later, we took a leap of faith and left all we knew to move to the frozen Tundra... also known as Missouri.  :)  

As you can see, I've never lived anywhere for more than 6 years.  When people ask me where I'm from (because my accent still gives me away) or where I grew up, I just generally say Louisiana, because with the exception of three years between ages 4-7, that's where I spent my formative years.  

I still find myself saying to people here that "we just moved here from Texas", but the reality is we have lived in the KC area for 6 1/2 years now.  For those keeping track at home, that means I have actually lived here for longer than I've lived anywhere else in my life!  When I realized that a couple of weeks ago, I was kind of shocked.  It made me start thinking about if this feels like home to me.  The truth is, I still feel like a transplant, so I can't say that this feels like home.  It feels as much like home as Fort Worth did, I guess.  It doesn't not feel like home.  I'm not sure that any place in the world feels like "home".  Perhaps that is a good tension to have as a follower of Christ.  There is no place in this world that is my permanent home.  My home is with Him in Heaven.  

My ultimate home is Heaven.  My temporary home is with the four awesome people that live in this little house with me.