We stay thirty-five miles away in Laurens, a small farming community where I grew up. The little Main Street and thousand or so residents provide a stark contrast to Dallas, Texas where I spent the first part of the week coaching some church planters and where Amber, Benjamin and I lived from 2003 to 2005.
But northwest Iowa is home. I spend the first eighteen years of my life and three years as an adult there. As we drove from Omaha up the western part Iowa, the sights and smells became more familiar. Miles and miles of golden soybeans covered some of the most fertile soil in the world. The green combines were busy working harvesting corn that stands ten feet tall. We stopped at an apple orchard. The boys picked some of the best apples a person could eat. The orchard wasn’t staffed. We paid on the honor system. We later walked into the one hundred and twenty-five year old house I grew up in. I was immediately taken back to the seasons of my youth.
A few hours later I laced up my trail running shoes and took a short drive to Kindlespire Park. It is where I trained as a high school runner and during the summers in college. The long and windy hills still meandered through the forest that borders the Little Sioux River. Deer, wild turkey, pheasant, and squirrels looked at me with bewilderment, just like their ancestors did. The river crossings were the same. The dirt trail was covered in acorns. It is still a slice of heaven carved in the prairie. After an hour of sweating and stumbling through the woods, I realized I had returned home.
Return to me, and I will return to you," says the LORD Almighty. –Malachi 3:7
We all have a common home. It’s not in Nebraska or Iowa. It’s in God’s Kingdom. A time existed when God was so present in our lives. Life as we understood it made so much sense. We loved God and we loved people.
But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! –Revelation 2:4-5
God urges us to return home to Him. And God promises us that He will return to us. We will feel His presence, life will begin to make sense again, and we can freely love and be loved. That is our true home.
The best is yet to come…
Craig
But northwest Iowa is home. I spend the first eighteen years of my life and three years as an adult there. As we drove from Omaha up the western part Iowa, the sights and smells became more familiar. Miles and miles of golden soybeans covered some of the most fertile soil in the world. The green combines were busy working harvesting corn that stands ten feet tall. We stopped at an apple orchard. The boys picked some of the best apples a person could eat. The orchard wasn’t staffed. We paid on the honor system. We later walked into the one hundred and twenty-five year old house I grew up in. I was immediately taken back to the seasons of my youth.
A few hours later I laced up my trail running shoes and took a short drive to Kindlespire Park. It is where I trained as a high school runner and during the summers in college. The long and windy hills still meandered through the forest that borders the Little Sioux River. Deer, wild turkey, pheasant, and squirrels looked at me with bewilderment, just like their ancestors did. The river crossings were the same. The dirt trail was covered in acorns. It is still a slice of heaven carved in the prairie. After an hour of sweating and stumbling through the woods, I realized I had returned home.
Return to me, and I will return to you," says the LORD Almighty. –Malachi 3:7
We all have a common home. It’s not in Nebraska or Iowa. It’s in God’s Kingdom. A time existed when God was so present in our lives. Life as we understood it made so much sense. We loved God and we loved people.
But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! –Revelation 2:4-5
God urges us to return home to Him. And God promises us that He will return to us. We will feel His presence, life will begin to make sense again, and we can freely love and be loved. That is our true home.
The best is yet to come…
Craig
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