UPFRONT November 21, 2005 Issue

So 'many mansions'

PATRICIA KADICK, STAFF EDITOR

"Home is where the heart is." Familiar assurances like that one can often sound shallow. This is particularly true if one needs a place to call home because the house has been burned or swept away, or if the idea of home itself has been torn apart by separation, grief, or divorce.

I remember one time when even the promise of a happy home felt hollow to me. But right then, as I let the idea of God as my Father-Mother wrap round me, the following sang in my heart, filling its emptiness with laughter—and then with practical ideas: "Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God" (Ps.84:3).

Our authors this week share precious insight about the "home you cannot lose." For example, in "Nothing can separate you from your true home," Harriet Schupp, a New Orleans evacuee, shares her story about Hurricane Katrina. Her desire became to "be at peace no matter what the physical status of my house turned out to be." Denise Menadue, of Australia, writes about a "good move," which came about as she prayed to find the perfect place for herself and her mother. And in "From refugee to refuge found," Gabriel Tshiala Lumbadila, who lives in Canada, writes of his Congolese countrymen, ". . . my continuing prayer is that their real home is the heaven I have tasted—life in God's presence, under His control."

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