Settling In and An Awkward Moment

So you've been wondering what has happened to me since we arrived here in Mobile. I've not posted here very often. I guess my brain has been in the idle position. I've been busy though, trying to get settled in.

Have you ever been to the beach or even sat on the edge of a child's sandbox and found yourself wiggling you feet down into the sand? You don't have the intention to bury yourself, but you just kind of turn your feet back and forth until they are hidden in the sand and you are slightly planted. I guess that's what I've been doing these last couple of weeks.

I've got my car with me (which I usually don't have) so I've been scoping out the neighborhood. I've not actually driven around the trailer park, but I've ventured out as far as needed to do what I need to do. And, I've not gone far.

Within a mile or less from my camper there is Wal-Mart Super Center, Super Target, Family Christian Books, Hobby Lobby, two Starbucks, a Baptist church, and various fast food joints and restaurants. There is a laundromat less than two miles away, and the gym (yes, I found a ladies only gym) is probably around five miles from me. Oh yes, there is a beauty salon down on the corner, but I've not gone there yet. Tell me, what else could a girl need? An Ulta store! But I'm out of luck on that one. There's not an Ulta in the whole city of Mobile! What ever will I do?!?!?!?!?
This bit of junk mail is evidence that my feet are wriggled down in the sand a little. Not enough to hold me here forever, but enough that I've set Space 81 Green Park Drive as "Home" on my Garmin.

There must be hundreds of catchy little saying about where home is. Some of them are--Home is where you hang your hat--Home is where you belong--Home is where the cat is--Home is where you can say anything you like because no one listens to you anyway--and the most popular, Home is where the heart is.

But even with all the advise about where home is, I always feel awkward when someone asks me where I live. Yesterday I went to church. I didn't know what time the services started so I got there plenty early to ask and not be late. I ended up being there in time for Sunday school and big church.

A nice lady led me down a narrow hall as she asked me if I wanted to attend a ladies only class or a couples class. Rick has to work every day of the week, so most of my Sunday school attendance will be done alone. I thought a class just for women might do, and besides, I was just visiting anyway.

The first awkward feeling hit me when I saw that the classroom where the women's class met was obviously deigned and decorated for little ones. I'm talking creepers and crawlers, maybe toddlers. The entire hour I was there I had trouble keeping my mind on what the teacher was saying because I couldn't help but wonder where the children that belonged in that room were.

The second and more awkward moment happened when I realized that the teacher and I were the only ones who were going to be in class that morning. "Where two or more are gathered..." she said.

Maybe so, but it is hard for two people to make a good discussion group. I was so preoccupied with thoughts of missing children that when she hit me with the question about which one verse in the Bible was my "Life's Verse," I'm afraid I shot her one of those "Are you KIDDING me?" looks. How many verses are in the Bible anyway? And I'm supposed to pick only one that has impacted my life? Yeah, it was another awkward moment.

But I think the most awkward yet so familiar moment for me was when the teacher asked where I live. My first instinct was, and always is, to reply, "Everywhere and nowhere." (For any first time readers of this blog, you're just going to have to read several older posts to fully understand.)

Home is where the family is? Mine is scattered all the way from Houston to the northern Texas Panhandle and into Oklahoma. Home is where I own property and pay taxes? Or is home where I get junk mail? What about the address programed into the GPS unit?

I think about what God's Word says about Jesus' home. (Luke 9:57-58) As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."
Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

I'm sure Jesus never had to fill out a visitor's card at Sunday school, but if he had, do you think He would have listed his address as "Everywhere and Nowhere?"

When I read Hebrews I see that I'm not the only one who has ever felt awkward about my address. And in 1 Peter, the Bible points out that maybe I should feel awkward and out of place concerning my temporary home.

So where did Jesus and these aliens call home? Their minds and hearts were set on one place--heaven, in the presence of God. So maybe home really is where your heart is.

The next time I visit a new church and they want me to fill out one of those little cards, I think I might just write "Heaven" on the address line.

If home is where the heart is, what would you write?