Each time I hear the “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” classic, I feel a twinge of the diagnosed homesickness disorder. My thoughts carry me back to my family home in Mycenae, NY. I visualize our living room decked out with tree, lights, mistletoe and gift-wrapped packages.  Another family now dwells there….

My parents sold the home place in the nineteen seventies. Though it is no longer the Ford home, it is still the first place that comes to my mind each Christmas. I relive all the Christmas sights and sounds, along with scents of evergreen branches and fresh baked Christmas cookies. A sensation of a warm cozy room is comforting. Time cannot stop my anticipated trip home.

I will be going home for Christmas through the gift of memory. I am saddened in the reality of family and friends facing their first Christmas following the loss of a loved one or a cherished friend. Holidays bring happiness and yet heartache as well. God gives comfort to those in need of renewed joy and hope. The dead, who had placed trust in Christ Jesus, are home for Christmas.

“So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6-8 NKJ).” We will be missing those dear to us terribly, but we find comfort in knowing they are home for Christmas.