©  Focus on Jesus.  Focus on Souls.  ©

It was the Christmas season in probably 1987, my hospitable and helpful friend Bal-Lan and her husband Jonathan drove me through the gorgeous homes in the UCLA neighborhood.  It might be the Westwood or Brentwood hills. 

Sad Memories of Lights of Homes

The homes had nice architecture and seasonal decoration.  In the early chilly evening, almost all had turned on various lights at their entryway, on the wall, in the porch area and inside the houses.  They looked so homely, warm and beautiful in that family-together season.  They made me feel so lonely.  Just few months ago, I had come back from a one-year trip to Taiwan after my father’s health stabilized.  Back there, the faces were lovely yet the culture so foreign to me.  I had a cultural shock.  Also, conflicts with managers while working for a newly founded venture capital firm.  After returning to California, almost everything needed to start from ground zero.  Renting apartment, finding work, settling down… in a foreign city in yet another foreign country.  No relatives, none but one friend close by.  Those softly beaming yellowish lights almost drove me to deep depression. 

 Cobblestone Mill by Thomas Kinkade

I Am in my Father's Home

Few years later I saw Thomas Kinkade’s artwork.  He is the anointed ‘painter of light.’  The light from the homes he paints looks real.  I appreciated and adored those homes and their surrounding sceneries.  Still, I felt a little sadness and afraid of past memories of loneliness Christmas seasons had brought.

Year 2002’s holiday season has arrived.  Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  Jesus’ birthday is only four weeks away.  I have a family now.  The Lord fills me.  Childrearing challenges fill me too.  Loneliness no longer is an issue.  Somehow this morning in worship, I recalled the feelings in 1987 and when admiring Mr. Kinkade’s lighted houses years later.  Holy Spirit said to me, “You live in the home now.”  Tears came like a flood.  From God’s perspective I now live in one of those beautiful picturesque homes.  Once I was an outsider, isolated and alone.  Now, I belong to the warm, cozy and most gorgeous home of the Heavenly Father.  On earth, He also has given us a wonderful home.  No longer am I a wonderer or stranger in this land.  How great is His grace and mercy!

Longing for More

Yet my heart longs for more.  How about those who feel outside of a home and lonely?  Where can they go in this time of family union?  Where are their families?  What will they do to find shelter, warmth and joy?  Will they discover that the one who loves them the most has been patiently waiting for them to come home?

Father home is always open to us.  So I make my home open to those who feel lonely, weary and seek a home to enter and rest.  Father, now that I have lived inside and tasted the sweetness of Your home please use me to bring others in.

Love,

Your daughter