I'll Be Home for Christmas

The number one question of the past week has been, "Where will you be for Christmas?"

And my happy response has been, "Home."

I'll be home for Christmas.

Here in our cozy house, snuggled on our couch Christmas morning with family sitting around our twinkling tree, unwrapping gifts all together.  I'm just a little excited.

Which leads me to today's Musical Count-Down to Christmas, a song that embodies that beautiful dream to be home and surrounded by our loved ones.

I'll Be Home for Christmas


I'll be home for Christmas
You can plan on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree

Christmas Eve will find me
Where the lovelight gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams
From : http://www.elyrics.net/read/b/bing-crosby-lyrics/i_ll-be-home-for-christmas-lyrics.html


This song is almost always sung with a smidgen of nostalgia, remembering Christmases past with tenderness.  In just a few verses, it expresses our heart's desire to have a home to go home to.  I want my kids to look back on the Christmases of their childhood with the same fondness and warmth ... and then come home for the Holidays.  Come home to a home that is welcoming and sheltering.


Allow me a little rabbit trail today ...


Last Thursday, I had the head-holding joy to help build a half dozen gingerbread houses.  Correction:  three houses, two shanties and a floor with frosting, candies and sprinkles filling up to an imaginary attic.  It was fun and frustrating and creative and candy-strewn with kids who were sugar-covered and sugared-up.  I have pictures to share ...

My Happy Little Builders

But first you have to visit here.  Go and enjoy, I'll wait here.  (whistling, drumming fingers...)


Can you believe it?!?  What creativity and skill!  What incredible works of art!


Yeah ... that is not what we did.  We were a little more, uhm, hmm ... challenged.


As we built our little cottages with our graham crackers and dry-hard-like-concrete-Royal-Icing, there were a lot, "Oh no's" and "Aah! Help's" and "I can't do it's".  There is definitely a skill involved in building a gingerbread house with the proper structural integrity to withstand the several pounds worth of gumdrops, Rolo's and SweetTarts.  There is also a level of patience involved that my little builders were lacking.  Before the frosting had a chance to stick, they were designing chimneys and laying out their roofing material.

Here's Ashely's bungalow before the earthquake.

Aaron chose an adobe-styled house,
complete with snowballs.

Norah was very excited about her chimney.
It was not structurally sound.

Lydia's box home ... she snitched most of her roof.

Poor Ashley had two walls that refused to stay upright.  I would apply additional icing, she would hold it still for 3.7 seconds and then go right back to adding the sugary odds and ends that in the end, sabotaged her home.  There were a lot tears as I attempted to salvage the candied mess.  In the end, we propped up her roof and concealed the wreckage behind, you guessed it, more candy.

Post earthquake ... hence the thumb.

Lydia repeatedly assured me that her flat creation was, "Okay, Mom.  It not fall down."  Which just sent Ashley into a new flurry of tears.

As I did my very best to shore up wiggly walls and reinforce wobbly roofs, I thought about the first part of Psalm 127, "¹Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain." Here in my sticky hands was a perfect example of the importance of having a firm and solid foundation before building a gingerbread house ... or a real house, as well.  (For a few more good verses about Jesus as our foundation, check out Psalm 118:22-24 and 1 Peter 2:4-7.)


I am grateful that we have built our home with Jesus as our Cornerstone.  As we trust God to build our home, we can trust Him to make this a haven for our family.  And our friends, too.


Now, let's go back to the song today ...


It's wonderful to have a home filled with Christmas decorations:  twinkling lights, snowy scenes, mistletoe and a generous array of packages and gifts under the tree.  But it's even more wonderful to have a home filled with the Love Light of Jesus.  That's not a dream, however, but a reality, when we let the Lord Jesus build our homes.


That's my prayer for you today ... wherever you are going for Christmas, may you find Jesus there. And people who love you, too.