Coming Home

Later on this afternoon, our oldest child will be back home. Lauren will have completed her first year of college!  She will officially be a Sophomore.

It seems like yesterday that we dropped her off, driving back home without her, tears streaming. We weren't sure what life would be like without her here. But, just like she did, we adjusted. We learned to enjoy her weekend visits. At Christmas she was here longer, then transferred closer where we've been able to see her a lot more often.  And now she'll be home for three and a half months.

There will, most likely, be an adjustment to Lauren living back at home. Her brothers have adjusted to life without an older sister bossing them around, for one! Ha ha!  She will have to get used to being home, too.  She won't have quite as much freedom as she had before, but will have more, in a way.  My rule for her coming home was that she didn't have to help around the house if she was here for only a weekend, but if it was more than three days, she was no longer a guest. She was part of the family....and the family works together! :)

This relationship between a college child and her family makes me think of God and His children.  Maybe the reason some of His children feel distant from Him is that they aren't around Him enough.  Maybe they just visit from time to time, but don't ever stay long enough to be really familiar with Him.

God longs for His children to be close to Him. He doesn't want just occasional weekend visits. He wants full-time custody!  He wants His children to feel so comfortable with Him that they can tell Him anything - and they do.  He wants that closeness. He wants their hearts.

When we give our lives fully to Our Heavenly Father, it won't be an adjustment each time we come home to Him.  It will be natural.  Coming Home.......that's what God wants from His children.  All of them.