Home for Christmas. The power of the advertising industry seems to know no bounds.  Even after 35 years, the Christmas advertising campaign for Folgers Coffee still resonates with me and elicits a profound (perhaps overstating the case?) sense of nostalgia.  I wasn't a coffee-drinker at the time (not many 9 year-olds drank coffee in the pre-Starbucks era), but I could feel the homecoming when "Peter" came home and made a pot of coffee in time to greet his mother on Christmas morning with a piping hot cup of Folgers!  It's hard for me to remember what I ate for breakfast yesterday, but I remember that commercial and the power of a Christmas homecoming. 

 

I wonder if that commercial stayed with me because it speaks to the power of the holidays for so many of us.  This season seems to beg us to return home, at least emotionally if not physically. That's why many of us put so much effort into decorating, cooking, hosting, traveling- we want this year to carry us back to a home that once was and feels increasingly distant for too many of us.

 

What if the desire is right, but the route is wrong?  

 

What if our hoped-for homecoming is entirely good, right and even holy, but our attempts to recreate an environment at home, a feeling of family or a perfect experience are missing the One who could actually deliver us home? Buried in our traditions, habits and rhythms during the holidays is the story of the Father's heart to welcome us home. Perhaps a renewed focus on the story around which all of our traditions were originally built would help us find a new and unexpected experience of "the Father's only son, full of grace and truth." Join us this Sunday as we begin the journey home!