Come Home for Christmas

on December 24, 2010 by Walt Dilg

 Come Home for Christmas

                                                December 2011 

There I was.  Stuck.  Pittsburgh Airport.  8:00 p.m.  The airplane had been diverted on its way from Chicago to Buffalo, and now was grounded.  I wasn’t going anywhere soon.  Snow was falling, snow upon snow.  Gusting.  Howling really.  The inches piled up into feet.  It promised to be a long night awaiting a break in the snowstorm to get back up into the air.

 My back was weary and my bottom ached against the cold metal stool of the diner.  The television above the counter droned on with one of those classic holiday films.  The reception wasn’t so good, so it only caught my attention from time to time, but didn’t hold it for long.  The meatloaf was cold and overpriced.  The coffee weak.  I guess I just felt miserable, sorry for myself. Christmas was in a few days, and I desperately wanted to get home.

 Then as things settled a bit in the dinner, the television’s crackle gave way to a song, as clear as it was poignant.  The melody line unmistakable, the lyrics tugging at the heart-strings. 

I’ll be home for Christmas.                                    Christmas Eve will find you

 you can count on me.                                           where the love light gleams.

Please have snow and mistletoe,                             I’ll be home for Christmas,

and presents ‘neath the tree.                                 if only in my dreams.

 Now I don’t really think I needed that.  My eyes teared.  How can people write such sentimental drivel, I thought.  Yet my spirit was touched.  Yes, I too wanted to be home for Christmas, even if it was only in my dreams. 

 There’s something about returning to the hearth, the place of wound-binding and succor, the place of acceptance and inclusion, where energy is renewed and hope rediscovered, things put to rights and the way made plain.  There is a promise of wholeness at home, and though traveled far from in the course of our lives, still tugs deep inside and beckons us.

 As the years pass, I find the journey of life becomes more and more a pilgrimage of the soul – the striving for home, its home within the oneness of God.  We get a taste of that in the church, each Sunday, yet especially at Christmas time.  The candles, the bells, the colors - God’s love surrounding, grace upon grace abounding. 

 Come Home for Christmas – it’s a great place to be – it’s the right place to be.   

Pastor Walt