Isaiah 35:10 They’ll sing as they make their way home to Zion, unfading halos of joy encircling their heads, Welcomed home with gifts of joy and gladness as all sorrows and sighs scurry into the night. The Message Bible
In our house one of the holiday staples is the Carpenters Christmas album (well, CD now). One of my favorite cuts is Karen Carpenter singing Oh, there’s no place like home for the holidays. I remember the first year I lived away from home and what a marvelous feeling it was to return for Christmas. Zion was the place of the temple in Jerusalem, a place Jews may well have thought of as home. Whether this was written about the northern kingdom that had been carted away by the Assyrians in Isaiah’s lifetime or a look forward to the southern kingdom after they were exiled to Babylon in 587 BC, it is really about all of us and the possibility of returning to our home in God and God’s family. Whether you have a house to visit as home this Christmas or not, you have a home with God and that is what Jesus came to provide for us. So come home for Christmas. Come home to God. Come home to the church, God’s family.
Logan Memorial Presbyterian Church 