The importance of home

In her article, “Giorgia on My Mind,” from the November/December 2022 issue of Gilbert, Susan Sucher (who identifies herself as a domestic empress) shared these thoughts we would all do well to keep in mind. She begins with a generous quote from G. K. Chesterton.

In his collection of essays, The Apostle and the Wild Ducks, Chesterton points out, “For at present we all tend to one mistake; we tend to make politics too important. We tend to forget how huge a part of a man’s life is the same under a Sultan and a Senate, under Nero or St. Louis. Daybreak is a never-ending glory, getting out of bed is a never-ending nuisance; food and friends will be welcomed; work and strangers must be accepted and endured; birds will go bedwards and children won’t, to the end of the last evening.” For all of us, the domestic sphere is the preeminent one. We would do well to remember that what we do in the home has significantly more effect on us and those we love than any political forces. Our hope lies in fulfilling the call to be what God intended – to fulfill his plan for us in our state in life.

I know I can get wrapped up in what is happening in Washington, D.C., as well as Springfield, Illinois, to the point that I growl/groan watching the news. When I reflect, instead, on what my favorite domestic empress has done in sharing her faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord, raising our kids and managing our household, I cannot imagine how I could have been any better blessed. God bless your household as you serve our crucified and risen Lord Jesus.

From her perspective

Dear friend Gerry Coleman shared this on Facebook the other day – a reflection on the blessed Virgin Mary and the phrase used by the angel Gabriel in the annunciation.

She was "highly favored" but was almost put away by the man she loved the most.

"Highly favored" but she was rejected by every person in Bethlehem.

"Highly Favored" but she laid on the dirt floor of a barn and gave birth to a baby she carried nine months.

"Highly Favored" but in the middle of the night had to leave all she knew and move to a strange town because God said so.

Favor never looks like favor at first. Favor sometimes takes you through frustration, failure, and fear. You want to be favored of God? It may be in darkest night or deepest valley. But there in that place where no one sees you and you feel like no one understands whisper to yourself, "this is only the beginning not the end. This will turn out for my good and His glory. This is because...I'm Favored."

~ Evangelist Brent Carr

You are highly favored. As the writer to the Hebrews wrote of the sacrifice of Christ Jesus for you, “14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham” (Hebrews 2:14-15).

Through Christ Jesus - God incarnate, God with us - you can be assured that by the Holy Spirit our God is indeed at work in all things for your good and His glory (Romans 8:28). As you are perhaps transiting the darkest night or the deepest of valleys it is my fervent prayer that God’s richest blessings grace your life as we celebrate the nativity of our Lord.

G. K. Chesterton's "The House of Christmas"

G. K. Chesterton was always ready with imagery and paradoxes. Here is a Christmas poem contrasting being at home and away.

There fared a mother driven forth

Out of an inn to roam;

In the place where she was homeless

All men are at home.

The crazy stable close at hand,

With shaking timber and shifting sand,

Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand

Than the square stones of Rome.

For men are homesick in their homes,

And strangers under the sun,

And they lay their heads in a foreign land

Whenever the day is done.

Here we have battle and blazing eyes,

And chance and honor and high surprise,

But our homes are under miraculous skies

Where the yule tale was begun.

A Child in a foul stable,

Where the beasts feed and foam,

Only where He was homeless

Are you and I at home;

We have hands that fashion and heads that know,

But our hearts we lost – how long ago!

In a place no chart nor ship can show

Under the sky’s dome.

This world is wild as an old wives’ tale,

And strange the plain things are,

The earth is enough and the air is enough

For our wonder and our war;

But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings

And our peace is put in impossible things

Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings

Round an incredible star.

To an open house in the evening

Home shall men come,

To an older place than Eden

And a taller town than Rome.

To the end of the way of the wandering star,

To the things that cannot be and that are,

To the place where God was homeless

And all men are at home.