Hi Rose Buddy! We are now on day eight of the writing prompt and today’s topic is something we all are familiar with and that is dinner. Home in itself is normally associated with warmth, tranquility, and a sense of togetherness regarding family. It has been widely discussed that home is the location of our heart. Nowadays, that has been socially seen with memes or 10 second romantic videos displaying various couples with a caption titled, “home.” Even in the church, many members would consider their place of worship, home.

So, we can conclude that home is subjective. In relation to that, there is also a mass number of people who do not consider the house they grew up in a home. There are even holiday movies that build their plot on the city goer who moved away from home that is now perplexed about flying in for the holidays. Being home for dinner may not always have the roasted chestnut imagery that we were taught to associate it with growing up. In this brief story, I would like to explore a different viewpoint for home for dinner.

Dinner was a time that family got together after their respective days to commence with one another over a meal. It was an important meal because it brought the family together no matter how terrible of a day they each had. Everyone was home for dinner. What happened after dinner changed the course of home. Home was not considered the same anymore. Sickness crept in like a bandit with a gun. Ready to lock and load on anyone opposing his mission to ail. My pastor is sick. The shepard over our home is ill. He is unable to be home for dinner. The dynamic that once was is now a distant memory. A table that once sat four sits none. We all eat at separate times because dinner made our house a home. Days upon days pass as if we were in a timelapse video in Heaven. Where’d the time go? The baby of the house is planning to leave. So, then there were two. Table still empty, but two still present.

Sickness snuck again for the second time. With a violent grip on his good thing, she fought to be released. Being home for dinner was missed even more being so far away. Wanting to cook meals just to see the smile on her face. The baby flew home only to find the sickness has settled itself on his good thing. She had to find another home for dinner. The table setting would never be the same now. Shortly after, the shepard was called to a different home for dinner as well. Thankfully, it was the same Home as his good thing. The children were left with memories of home.

It is not the same anymore. The place the baby longed to return to is not like she experience before. Being home for dinner meant more than the house she knew majority of her life. She realized that home was in the moments she spent at the hospital before the last breaths. Home was under her shepherd’s arms as he laughed in his hospital bed. Home was sharing tears with her brother as they ended with laughter and hope. Home is now beautifully crafted in a new life with her future shepherd. The baby went from being raised in a home to building one. She found that it wasn’t about being home for dinner but becoming a home for Him to dine. To only live in such a way that she too can join her shepherd and his good thing in the destined home we all hope to reside eternally.

There is a home that The Good Shepherd desires to reside which is on the inside of us. If our hearts are open to receive, He will gladly station Himself. So that no matter where we are, we will always feel home. Because home was never a noun but a verb. We want to feel the embrace of fulfillment and love that homes gives. The only way to experience this is through Jesus. Jesus is home. He makes us His home and He helps us to feel the attributes of home through His Spirit. Lord we invite you, now. Please be our home and let Your Word be our dinner.

If you came from my Instagram page, then you know I am partnering for the rest of this month with Briana Kimble, founder of Officially HER! If you haven’t already, be sure to also read my fellow writer’s blog post on www.officiallyher.org/blog and stay tuned for tomorrow’s post!