Home

Three years ago we left my home of 59 years, in Utah, all our friends, family and neighbors to work in Phoenix, Az. The place of apartments, cactus , flowers and birds of so many varieties. My son and his family, my oldest single son and my husband and I all got jobs. My neighbors were constantly changing. None of them shared my faith and definitely they had never heard or known of me. I was also an hour from the kids and grandkids. But we gathered at places around Phoenix. I was always in the car on the highway traveling.

Then covid hit and we were confined to home. It was lovely to see family members. We suddenly had lots of time to spend with one another. We worked at home online. Everything shut down: schools, churches, movie theaters, businesses, stores. It was family time. Church at home, shopping for seniors only two hours a day, kids at online school or taught by mom. Parks, recreation, gyms: closed. Even missionaries returned home. We learned church at home. The arts were put on hold as were universities.

Now the world is open again but things are still different. Many movie theaters are out of business. Many older people have not returned to congregations. Many families have lost loved ones. Covid changed the way we do things. We learned new technology to cope and strengthened home. But now there is a war on. A multitude of Ukrainians leaving their homes of centuries, seeking refuge. A National Geographic article should be done of their faces. We all care for them. Even the Russians protest against their own government. What will the future hold?

It will hold a hope for a better world.A place where online violence is gone, where families stay together, where there are no more garbage patches in the ocean. A place where faith is sustained in God who is our real home. Home is not contained in stuff, in expensive escalating real estate but in our ways of treating each other with kindness and courage. It is the sparkle in a student’s eyes when he has learned something new. I make it a habit of sharing books. I find a book to fit a student I meet and give it to them. Some books can change a life. That is the intent.

I read. I read for pleasure, for comfort, for knowledge and to connect with God. He alone fights my battles when no one else understands them. He guides my life toward a destiny still unknown. But we can trust Him to be near. As long as our hearts are humble, we can hear His voice. The Master. Not some nameless unknown or energy field, but a person who knows our sorrows, our dreams and our possibilities because He lived and died that we might live again. This is faith and faith is action. It is hope for our future. It is based on evidence unseen and truths we know in our soul. Abba Father. We call Home, often.

I pity those who do not know this Friend. How can it be that children at school ask me- Is God real? Does He exist? Is He a shooting star flying through the Universe. I ask them, do you know who Jesus Christ is? They shake their heads no. They know Minecraft, Bruno and Encanto songs. But do they know books, God and nature? Do they go outside and see the Milky Way on a dark bright country sky. Do they envision a world of reality where love lasts, where people grow old like leaves changing on a Utah autumn, bit by bit, and tend gardens. Do they go on walks in autumn and look at the trees. As each leaf dies, a brilliant flash of color creates a massive landscape, a collage of colors on the mountain. Yes, we have snow in Utah, but what a glorious spring and sunrise, sunset. The rhythms of nature. Do we see them in the city?

When I was commuting from Phoenix to Queen Creek, I saw a sunrise. I heard music again in my heart. See the sunshine flooding the sky. See the buildings way up high. Then there’s the river reflected in their gaze. The sprinkle of flowers on every bush or tree. Arizona is the only place I have ever lilies on trees and hedges covered in purple, pink and orange flowers. Flowers on the tall sageros. Houses stuccoed into two story design. Cliche soil and living up high. I can see bird nests out my window. But I want to go home. In my mind’s eye I am there.