Where’s Your Home

When I was studying theology at Huron University College I spent a few days one reading week at L’Arche Daybreak in Richmond Hill Ontario.  This was a great introduction to the L’Arche Communities.  L’Arche was founded by Jean Vanier, a Canadian, as a community for people who are developmentally challenged.  The first community was established in 1964 when Jean Vanier welcomed two men with disabilities into his home in the town of Trosly-Breuil, France.  Since then communities have been established in 147 communities in 35 countries, on all five continents.

When I arrived at L’Arche I was greeted by one of the residents with the question, “where’s your home”?  I was rather taken back by this as I was expecting the usual questions, “where do you live” or “where are you from”.  I later learned that the resident (unfortunately I have forgotten his name) asked this question of everyone he met.

On reflection I realized that this was a very insightful question and a very good way of getting to know someone.  Your home is very different from where you live.  Now it might be the same place but often it can enlist a very different answer.  There is the old saying, “home is where the heart is”.  This may be a bit of a cliché but I believe it gets at the essence of the difference.  You can actually live in many places in your life or the same place but you may never live in a place that is you home. 

Your home is not necessarily a place of residence. You can have a home in different aspects of your life.  I discovered my church home when I first worshiped at St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church in London, Ontario.  I was searching for a new church home at that time.  I was raised in the United Church but in the early thirties I realized that it was not my religious home.  The experience of worshiping in an Anglican church resonated with me immediately and I knew without a second or even a first thought that this was my home.  I went on to have thoughts about it and analyzed why I felt that way.  However, it was an experience of the heart.

I am reflecting on where my home in this morning as we are now at our cottage in P.E.I.  This raises the question or me whether my home is here in P.E.I. or back in Parkhill Ontario.  I do feel at home in both places.  We attended the worship service at St. George’s Montague yesterday and it felt like a homecoming.  I am sure when we return to Parkhill and to St John’s by the Lake, Grand Bend that will feel like a homecoming as well.  My heart seems to be in both places.  I guess it is possible to have more than one home.  I believe and know that I will find my heavenly home when my time on this earth has run its course but until then it can be at home here and back in Ontario. 

So my question for you is, “where‘s your home”?  Blessings,