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Week 3 of Advent

Are You at Home?


When you think of the word “home,” what comes to mind?  What makes a place feel like home to you? 

Toni Morrison once said the most important thing a parent can do is to allow our eyes to light up when a child enters the room.   This simple act--expressing delight in their presence through our body language--is an important way to help our children understand that they have a home in us.  

Even as adults, our day-to-day interactions influence whether we feel at home in a place, a relationship, a group, or even the world.  Though we are often unaware of this, the people we encounter--their very facial expressions--are giving us information about how others see us and, hence, how we would be wise to see ourselves.  Over time--and especially in our most significant relationships--an understanding of our basic identity is being formed.  We are determining the answer to these questions:  are we seen, valued, cared for? 


Most of God's followers do not have the gift of a face-to-face encounter with God.  God hid his face from Moses as a way of preserving his life (Exodus 33:30).  Elijah covered his face when God came near (1 Kings 19:13).  But later, God clothed himself in Christ's flesh, and while he walked the earth, his face was visible--at least for a time.  And in the Psalms, David shows us that though we are not able to see God's face, we can make ourselves fully known.  We can understand ourselves as seen, valued, and cared for.  In the eyes of God, embodied in Christ, our hearts find their truest home.


Have you ever tried to imagine a face-to-face conversation with Christ?

  • What if you entered a room full of people that included him?  Can you picture his eyes lighting up as you walked in?
  • What if you sat across a table from him, just the two of you?  How do you envision the expression on his face as he looks at you?
  • Are you able to believe yourself to have a home in Christ's presence?
  • How might your responses to these questions impact your interactions with others?
  • How do your own human relationships impact the degree to which you understand yourself as one in whom God delights?

If there is a word, a phrase, or a prayer that expresses your response to any of these thoughts, you are invited to post them here, or bring them as we gather for the third Sunday of Advent. 


You are also invited to listen to the teaching from the third Sunday of Advent at All Souls--A Holy Longing:  Longing for Home.


Here is the devotional for week 4 of Advent.


"Are You at Home?" devotional by Anne Lowry Pharr

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