the farm

Sunday, January 3rd, Jeremiah 31: 8 See, I will bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the ends of the earth. Among them will be the blind and the lame, expectant mothers and women in labor; a great throng will return. 9 They will come with weeping; they will pray as I bring them back. I will lead them beside streams of water on a level path where they will not stumble, because I am Israel's father, and Ephraim is my firstborn son. My father told each of us children that we could have the farm, but only after we went out into the world, got an education and if we decided we wanted the farm, we could have it. What he did not want was for any of us to just fall into farming because that was what we grew up doing. If we didn’t want the farm, we were to move some place interesting so he could come and visit. We all went our separate ways and eventually the farm was sold. My parents visited family in Minneapolis, Maine, Mississippi, Panama, New Hampshire, New York and Alaska before they passed away. The farm was converted back to the Pecatonica wetlands from which it started. Coming home is not always a place, sometimes it is an idea or a lifestyle. Dad was a farmer, but what he loved was travel, meeting new people and philosophy. As he sent us out in freedom and then came to see us, Dad is the one who came home. As God sends us out in freedom and then comes to visit us in our lives, home is found once more.