We each have God-given longing for home woven into our hearts, but this will only be satisfied when we are truly home and in the presence of Jesus Christ.


I’ll be home for Christmas


(You can count on me.
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents under the tree.
Christmas Eve will find me,
Where the love light gleams.
I'll be home for Christmas,
If only in my dreams.
Christmas Eve will find me,
Where the love light gleams.
I'll be home for Christmas,
If only in my dreams.)

Are you full of sentimental feelings right now? For some of you, this song brings up memories as far back as WWII, to 1943, when Bing Crosby made it a hit. So many soldiers were facing the holidays away from home. The longing to be home for Christmas really touched a cord. And it still does. A powerful cord.

Exactly one week before Christmas in 1965, as Gemini VII mission was finishing up 206 orbits, mission control asked the astronauts, “What song would you most like to hear when you return to earth?” They instantly answered, “I’ll be Home for Christmas.” Being away from the earth gave being home a whole new meaning.

But I think the longing for home may be stronger right now than it’s ever been before. With so many people losing their homes to foreclosure, home has becomes a major focus of our lives at the same time that so many homes are being destroyed, by divorce, by infidelity, by violence and strife in relationships, by drugs. The loss of home is producing a deep nostalgia for home. And Christmas brings it to the surface. You may be away from home on this home-focused holiday and full of sadness. Or you may be right in the midst of your family and yet, you don’t feel like you’re really home in spite of the snow and mistletoe and presents under the tree.

We need to remember that Christmas has a deeper meaning than the nostalgia of that old 1940s song -- a meaning that goes as deep as the real roots of our longing for home.

Christmas is about an event. An event that will finally put an end to our homesickness once and for all.

What was it? What was the Christmas event? Do you know? Most of us have wonderful associations with the holidays – lights, snow, bells ringing, packages being wrapped, hot chocolate, It’s a Wonderful Life. As good as they are, and they are, they have a danger to them. They can get in the way. Especially at this time of year, we’re in danger of letting other things get in the way of the big event that is Christmas. All the Gospels give us a piece of the real Christmas but John takes us deepest of all – he tells us what really happened when that baby was born at Bethlehem:


John 1:11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
John 1:12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God —
John 1:13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

These verses tell us what really happened at Christmas and it turns out that Christmas has a lot to do with home. Let’s take it in order:

John 1:11 says, “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”

The Lord came to his own home and was not received?

Yes, that’s what this verse tells us. It corrects a mistake that warps the way we think about just about everything. It’s the mistake of thinking it’s all about us. This verse gets us turned the right way around – it’s not first of all about us –it’s about Him.

He came home. He came to that which was his own but his own did not receive him. One translation says, “He came to his own home, and his own people received him not.” His own people, the one place on earth he chose as his inheritance, they did not receive him.

The story of Christmas is about the Lord and Creator of the world being turned away by the world. It’s a judgment not only against Israel but against the whole world he created for himself. The world should have thrown the door wide open in joy but it slammed it shut instead. John is telling us that God has not failed to notice the cold reception his Son received.

But is that all that happened at Christmas? Thank goodness, it’s not.

John 1:12-13 says, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

What happened at Christmas? Good news. Very good news!

The Lord came to bring US home – home to his Father.

Not all of us, but all who receive him. The coming of the Lord created a great divide that ran right through Israel and it’s running right through the whole human race. The line’s been drawn between those who refuse to receive him and those who are willing to receive him. That’s the fearsome thing that Christmas puts on the table – there’s no middle ground. He’s come. Will you receive him? Will you believe in his name?

If you do, then he’ll bring you home to his Father. He’ll give you all the rights and privileges of his Sonship. If you do, then you’ll come home, at last, even if your natural family shuts the door in your face the way the world shut the door in the face of the Lord. Ultimately it won’t matter because to those who receive him, “he gives them the right to become the children of God.” There’s only one family that matters in the final analysis -- God’s family.

The Son of God came to bring us home to his Father.

Paul says every family in heaven and on earth derives its name from the Father in heaven (Ephesians 3: 25). In other words, the whole idea of family was built into creation as a little model of the real family. All that longing for home that’s so deeply imbedded in all of us comes from being cut off from our true home and from the One who makes it home.

God is the real Father and when you believe in Jesus, God becomes your Father. You belong -- in the only true home – the Father’s house, the place where his glory dwells.
As believers in Jesus we live with the great hope of knowing we’re going home. We’re part of the family and we belong. We have the great promise of Jesus: “In my Father’s house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you.”

That’s where you’re headed, if you’ve believed in his name.

You’re part of the family and you can rest in the fact that your Father is absolutely committed to bringing you home for the holidays.

The real holidays. Christmas gets its brightness and its joy from the great holiday the family of God will celebrate when we’re all together with the Lord. We can have a foretaste of that celebration whenever we’re together with believers, if we open our hearts to understand who we are.

John says we’ve been born of God.

If you’re a believer in Jesus, then you’ve been reborn. Your natural birth may have been a decision your parents made or it may have been an accident. You may have deep roots that go way back or you may not have a clue about your ancestry.
But when you become a believer you’re born as an altogether new person. And your birth is no accident; it’s the will of God. He chose you for himself, to be his own son or daughter, to be brought into his house and to become his heir.

This isn’t a right that belongs to every human being, it belongs to those who receive Gods’ Son and believe in him. For us, God has become our Father. He has made us his sons and daughters.

We need to look around at other believers and see each other for what we really are and love each other deeply with an absolute commitment. We need to give each other a welcome that’s worthy of family. We’re family. We have a bond in Christ that runs deeper and lasts longer than the natural bond. And when we’re together, there’s a glow, a warmth, that gives us a taste of that future holiday the Father has planned for us.

BUT It’s not all just looking ahead. Christmas is good news for right here and now.

The last part of this passage says,

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.


What happened at Christmas?

The Lord made his home with us! That’s good news for us right this minute, as we go through this day.

“Made his dwelling among us” actually means “pitched his tent with us.” John sees Christmas -- the coming of the Word of God in the flesh -- as the fullness of what happened in the Exodus.

When Israel was traveling through the wilderness, living in tents, God also had a tent and he traveled with them. He filled that tent with the glory of his presence. They were traveling from one place to another, they were living in temporary homes, but they were headed to their permanent home in the promised land and God was with them on the journey. His presence made every campground a place of security and joy and awesomeness.

That’s our situation, too, as believers. We’re not in our permanent home. Paul even calls our bodies tents – one day they just fold up. They’re not permanent. But we’re headed for our permanent home and one day we’ll receive glorified bodies.

In the meantime, we’re still in the wilderness, But! Jesus has come and he’s pitched his tent with us. He’s not just home waiting for us to arrive. He’s with us right here and now. He’s taken on our flesh and come to live with us. And that means wherever we are, it’s home, because he’s there. Not just with us, but in us. Full of grace and truth.

One more thing:
A letter to us from a prisoner, Juan, who was sentenced on the third strike law to 25 years for drug possession.

“I thought since we are celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior I would share this from a prisoners perspective. I believe God wants to restore to us what the enemy has taken away.

“He says, ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful to forgive us.’ So we mustn’t let the enemy keep us focused on our past mistakes. It’s a free gift to receive God’s mercy and forgiveness. Jesus paid for it.

“I may die in here but the love I have for Jesus doesn’t compare to the love he has for me so in my heart I’m already a free man and heaven is just around the corner.
‘Even here the Lord is still at work in my life, maybe just to show kindness to others in such a sad and lonely place. Thank you for giving me the strength to keep moving forward to strive for the goal that is set before me and of course that’s home, with my Father in heaven.”

That’s the hope of Christmas. Jesus came to take us home to the father – and he came to be with us as we journey home.