Homecoming Day

Well, homecoming celebrations are in the air this month. I don’t know about where you are, but around here high-school and college kids are already getting excited about fancy dresses, suits, football games, queens and kings, dances, parties, tailgating, etc.

At our house, we too are in the homecoming celebration mood right now. It is a slightly different homecoming, though. We are celebrating the day our son Dylan came home to become the spice of our lives.

It was ten years ago today that our lives changed as we entered our house with a tiny 10-month old baby in our arms. Gosh, was he little! And cute! His hair was crazy straight, sticking up like a porcupine. He took to me right away. Somehow, he saw in me his anchor, and he latched on to my arms like a life-preserver. I wasn’t prepared for that. I have never been so needed in my life. I mean, we had Grant, but he was always so independent. This sense of neediness was entirely new to me. I couldn’t go anywhere…I mean anywhere…because Dylan would immediately start crying. He didn’t want to go anywhere either because he was afraid he’d lose sight of me. It was exhausting. I didn’t know what to do or how to handle it.

I look at those days now, and I see me as that needy baby. I am that child, so completely helpless and frightened that I can’t take a step for fear of losing sight of my anchor. I’m so tightly wrapped around My Lord’s arms, that sometimes I wonder if I’m suffocating Him. The funny thing is that I’m not. Differently from Dylan’s grip on me, my grip on the Lord, no matter how tight, would never smother Him. That is exactly what we are called to do. We are to be totally dependent on Him. He is to be the air that we breathe. And no matter how deep and scary our neediness may be, He will never be scared or tired of it. We can be assured that we can come to Him with all the heavy baggage of our dependence, and He would never turn us away. He can handle it, and He would never even have to slumber or take a break.

Well, as homecoming preparations go on their way, we celebrate the day Dylan stepped into our lives. What a ride! What a blessing! It’s been challenging at times, and at others just incredibly amazing and joyful. My cup runneth over. Blessed be the Name of the One who thought we could handle it. Blessed be the One who makes it all possible. Blessed are You, Lord Jesus, the bearer of our burdens, the healer of our wounds, the calmer of our storms.