ABC VERMONT & NEW HAMPSHIRE
  • Home
  • ABOUT US
    • MISSION AND PURPOSE
    • REGION MINISTRIES
    • FIND A CHURCH
    • MINISTERIAL LEADERS
    • STAFF
    • CONTACT US
  • RESOURCES
    • PASTORAL RESOURCES
    • CHURCH RESOURCES
    • MISSION PROJECTS
  • NEWS AND EVENTS
    • EVENTS
    • NEWS
    • NEWSLETTER
    • ANNUAL GATHERING VIDEO >
      • 2021 ANNUAL GATHERING VIDEO
      • 2022 Annual Gathering Video
    • FROST HEAVE REVIVAL PODCAST
    • IMPORTANT DATES
  • SUPPORTING THE REGION

Rev. Dale Edwards: Finding Home

12/2/2020

1 Comment

 
I have a small collection of books on the subject of chickens. One is by a local author and farmer, Jennifer Megysi. (I suspect the author and myself have both been readers of Wendell Berry.) In a book on chickens, toward its ending, the author writes of a night when she and her young son sit on the barn roof, hoping to snipe a chicken killing skunk. But her son is preoccupied because the family cat has not been seen in three days. In his grief he wishes he could also be in the sky to help the cat find his way home.   

We have all possibly looked into the stars, rejoiced in their beauty, or grieved a loss, wondered about eternity, or thanked God for being close. Not long ago I came home late, and like the boy on the barn roof, looked at the stars and wondered not about a cat, but of how people find their way home. How does anybody find their way home without the Christ who reaches for us from beyond the stars? As I proceeded to my front door, looking over my shoulder at the stars, I am glad to be home. I really like the home I own, but I love the home who owns me. Once I prayed the cat would come home, and she did. I have prayed for numerous people to come home; some have, some haven't and some in time, may choose to return. To place a prayer into eternity's expanse, asking that someone else would share the home you found, is like casting oneself into the Holy. 

The older I become, the more the Incarnation and Resurrection stir in me a desire to fall before God, and thank Him that I am home. To paraphrase a lyric, the Word who breathed a hundred billion galaxies into being, is the same Word became flesh and lives with us full of grace and truth. It is delusional to think I can climb onto a star and navigate from there my own way home. It is only the One who created the stars who can reach me, through the greatest birth and sacrifice ever to shake the cosmos, yet in time and history, here is Jesus the Christ, telling me, assuring me, embracing me, that I really am already home.  

"The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."


May the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rain down his love and grace upon you this Christmas season.

In Jesus name,

Dale
1 Comment
Rebecca Sommons
12/12/2020 07:44:03 am

This is so beautiful, Dale!
I love that God is our home and share your longing for more people to find God as their home too.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    News

    Read what's happening all around the Region!

    Archives

    December 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • ABOUT US
    • MISSION AND PURPOSE
    • REGION MINISTRIES
    • FIND A CHURCH
    • MINISTERIAL LEADERS
    • STAFF
    • CONTACT US
  • RESOURCES
    • PASTORAL RESOURCES
    • CHURCH RESOURCES
    • MISSION PROJECTS
  • NEWS AND EVENTS
    • EVENTS
    • NEWS
    • NEWSLETTER
    • ANNUAL GATHERING VIDEO >
      • 2021 ANNUAL GATHERING VIDEO
      • 2022 Annual Gathering Video
    • FROST HEAVE REVIVAL PODCAST
    • IMPORTANT DATES
  • SUPPORTING THE REGION