Homecoming
Health and happiness are natural. It is God who sets these qualities as standard for us, His sons and daughters. Going home to this standard means aligning our thoughts and actions with our original health, innocence, integrity, and purity, all found in our spiritual identity.
When someone we know comes to acknowledge his or her perfect health and well-being to be in God, it's time for "dancing in the streets." And everyone can awake to this true state of being.
While to some the word homecoming is synonymous with football, the Bible speaks of coming home differently, showing how one young man recognized the futility of his selfish lifestyle and was humbled (see Luke 15:11-24). He then wanted to return to his father's house, even if it meant being a servant instead of a household member. This act of contrition was the homecoming; the Bible says he "came to himself." And his father's unconditional welcome (which included celebration) points to the eternal relationship all have with God, who has been called "our eternal home."
When Christ Jesus restored a man's sight (see Mark 10:46-52) and raised another man from the dead (see John 11:1-44), they both came home. And when Jesus saved a woman from the traditional stoning usually inflicted on one who had sinned as she had (see John 8:3-11) - and told her, "Go, and sin no more" - another spiritual homecoming took place.
Coming home to God is feeling loved again. It is experiencing our natural and permanent relationship with divine Love. It is awakening to who we really are. It is having thoughts and actions that are in accord with divine good.
We only feel lost when we allow ourselves to feel separated from God. It is never natural to believe that we are living in an orbit of our own, with a material life and mind of our own, apart from God. "The discipline of the flesh is designed to turn one, like a weary traveller, to the home of Love" (Mary Baker Eddy, "Miscellaneous Writings," Pg. 84.) In fact, God is the only Love or Life there is, and He is our very being.
To be conscious of God and know ourselves as His reflection is to find our complete identity. Christian Science, explained in "Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures," by Mrs. Eddy, shows that our identity cannot be unlike that of our creator. God is perfect Spirit. So, in reality, we are perfect and spiritual.
Right at this moment you may be feeling anything but perfect! If that is the case, you can come home to conscious unity with God. If you've been less than loving, or less than honest, or even less than healthy, then it is time for a homecoming of your own. It can take place wherever you are and in whatever circumstance you find yourself. No one, no situation, can keep you from your right to be at home with your divine Parent. You don't have to die and go to heaven to be with God. You have only to renounce anything about yourself that is unlovely, and therefore unlike Him, in order to find your rich heritage as God's beloved.
Awakening to your spiritual nature is becoming conscious of heaven right here on earth.
We are never beyond spiritual redemption, for God has never created depraved, willful, sinful, or diseased children. No one is born a sinner and doomed to suffer. That could not possibly be the plan of a loving and omnipotent God.
Jesus expressed the redeeming grace of God, which brings healing to any and all. Those who are receptive to his teachings will come home to God - to a fuller understanding and demonstration of their own spiritual identity. Then it will become apparent that they have never truly been separated from Him, have never left their eternal home.
Yes, the season for homecoming games may be over. But any time becomes a spiritual homecoming when we draw close to God.
Behold, I send an Angel
before thee, to keep thee
in the way, and to bring thee
into the place which
I have prepared.
EXODUS 23:20
