Anytime I am back in my hometown, I like to drive by the house I lived in from first grade onward. I notice changes to the yard or exterior and enjoy seeing the same flowers and plants blooming. I like to see bikes and swings and other signs of a young family living there. When my father’s short-term memory was gone, I would take him on a drive down the street where he grew up. He would immediately perk up and begin to tell me the names of the families who lived in each house along the street seventy-five years ago, and include a story about each one. I would circle the block and when we came back to his street, he would do it all over again, having forgotten that we had been on the street less than a minute ago. But he had not forgotten the names of his boyhood neighbors.

What and where we find a true experience of home burrows deep within us. Kelly Coley, Coordinator of Engagement and Enhancement for Christ Church Kindergarten, spoke about her education of “home” at our staff meeting yesterday. Here’s what she shared:

A primary lesson in my house growing up was the importance of our home. My sister, brother, and I were taught early on that if company was coming, we were expected to get things into “company shape” by helping straighten, vacuum, and greet our guests at the door or on the driveway with arms open. Hospitality was taught, expected, and practiced by all of us daily.

My mother never called it the house, she always called it our Home. I don’t know if I knew what the difference between house and home was until after she died. I have worked to demonstrate and teach hospitality to my children, so that they will have a deeper understanding and value of home.

Home is a place that holds the people in your life that love and support you, those that can push you to do things you may not want to do, those that teach you to share, wait your turn, those who hopefully love you unconditionally. It is a place where you can have difficult discussions with those you love, a place where you can take a time out, to reset. It is also a place you can share your hospitality with those you love.

The word “holy” means something that is set apart for the service of God. Jesus turned that concept on its head. Holiness is found not by separating but by including, by valuing each, by adopting one another like family.

Our church and the places we live are special and important to us because they are uniquely our own. They become holy by how we share them and ourselves with others.