There's no place like Home

My first born and I have been sparce on one on one time together as of late due to pre-k starting.  We have found it hard to adjust as we embark on this new adventure for we have been attached at the hip since she was born.  Needless to say it was quite enjoyable to go into our basement/movie room, just her and me, and watch one of my favorites, a movie I have enjoyed since childhood.  As the Wizard of Oz started, we sat hand and hand.  I could not have asked for a more joyful moment then there on that couch with my Joci.  She sat, intently watching, the entire movie and as Dorothy said her goodbyes just before leaving Oz, an unexpected lump crept into my throut.  "Well, I... I think that it... that it wasn't enough to just want to see Uncle Henry and Auntie Em... and it's that if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own backyard; because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with."  I suppose I was thinking of her finding her own way into adulthood and the places she may venture to but mostly it was the hope that she will always find her hearts desire at home.  I don't really mean home with her father and me, but home at the feet of our Abba.  Most of us, at one point or another, wonders if where we are is where we belong, or if there is a place where we would be happier, more appreciated, more loved.  We often seek out different things to try and fill this longing of something greater.  We may momentarily find that in a foreign land doing foreign things, life is brighter than the place in which we left but when the newness wears off, it feels no different than what we had before.  Our search for joy and peace can not be found in a different atmosphere or wearing a different identity but within the intimacies of Christ. When Christ gives joy, he gives it to it's fullest.  John 15:11 says: "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete."  Joy and peace are simple and unencumbered.  They don't need anything to exist, only God and the portions He gives.  My prayer is not only for my children to always have these virtues of Christ no matter what adventure life takes them on but that I/we all have and know it as well.