I’m enjoying the Christmas tree in the lady den tonight, drinking hot coffee that will probably keep me awake at bedtime, reminiscing about family Christmases celebrated in my home, thanking the Lord for all my blessings. Our hearts are in our homes beating with the love of our families. Maya Angelou said, “The ache for home lives in all of us.” Such a true thought. Home is where we feel safe and secure, wanted and loved. Proverbs 24:3-4 states, “By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.”

When Chief died I tried to stay in Alexander City but I longed for my family in Roanoke in a way that was different from when Chief was alive. Chief was the heart of our home in Alexander City. With him gone, our home was cold and bare. He had told me many times he would go before me and he wanted me to go home to my family when he died. I’d always scoff at him and say, “Just because you are 21 years older than me doesn’t mean you’ll die first.” I didn’t realize how much I missed my family till they became my home.

I think our home is not a physical place but a place where we feel we belong, where we feel welcome. God wants us to feel at home with him. No matter what happens we will always have a home in our faith and in our prayers. God said, “Dwell in me, and I will dwell you. God lives in our heart and we have a spiritual home in him. I love that saying, “Home is where the heart is.” So where we find our heart, we find our home. “Having a place to go is a home. Having someone to love is a family. Having both is a blessing,” Donna Hedges.

Drove home early morning back to my sweet home Alabama from Georgia under a vanilla ice cream overcast sky. The clouds were so pretty, almost a watercolored pale lilac, a color I’ve never seen in the overcast sky. I’m imagining Father Sky let his granddaughter pick out her pastels to color the sky canvas. She did a wonderful sketch. I enjoyed being with my grandchildren yesterday and attending my grandsons’ Christmas band concert.

The vanilla sky with her overcast thick clouds kept the sun hidden all day. Middle afternoon some blue sky peeked shortly through the thick clouds that obscured the sun. Mother Nature was getting her palette ready to paint a glorious sunset but the sun herself had already snuggled up cozy in her vanilla cloud covers. Mother Nature brushed the horizon a light turquoise, blended it into the golden horizon, then retired her brushes for the night. The sun had slipped unseen down the horizon and turned the day’s light off. Father Sky was too busy searching for the moon and stars in their cloud covers to kiss Miss Sun goodnight. She was sung to sleep by the long wails and choo choos of a slowly moving freight train. I love to hear the train at dusk. Just has a lonesome winsome sound as the whistle echoes down the dark cold rails, mimicking the sound of loneliness. I feel that loneliness sometimes.

I watched several small flocks of birds on my way home today darting about in choreographed dances. I love to watch birds in their glorious winged flights. Some fly like the undulations of the waves in the ocean, some fly fast and straight, others dance in the air like ballerinas, some dive bomb to the tree limbs, some circle on the high heavens’ staircase riding the air currents. Roy T. Bennet said, “If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down.” You watch a bird in its beautiful flight and you’ll see how weightless they appear.

Our faith in God gives us the ability to fly freely. The Lord lifts us up with his support and strength and helps us soar spiritually. We just need to get rid of past experiences that weigh us down and clip our wings. Being brave and fearless we step off the branch striving to reach our full potential with God being the wind beneath our wings. We determine how life’s failures affect us, learning from them or letting them add weight to our wings. Our life experiences can help us fly or help us anchor ourselves to the ground. We are the only ones who decided how high we fly and how far our flight takes us. Trust in the Lord and you scan soar on eagle wings. God is always standing by to catch us as we learn to fly with our faith.

“Purity and simplicity are the two wings with which man soars above the earth and all temporary nature.” — Thomas Kempis