There's a sweet, sentimental phrase you might have seen on plaques, photos or framed art that states simply: “Home is where the heart is.” That's a beautiful way to create a word picture of how home is less about the structure it takes place in and more about the hearts that have created it and sustained its value and purpose.
I certainly agree with the 'home' being more about heart, and less about concrete and wood. It’s heart that helps those who enter your home to heal. It’s heart that holds a family tightly together. It’s heart that allows you to reach out to and care for your neighbors. But I want to add a twist to that very familiar phrase and say: “Heart is where the home is.”
Mister Rogers once said, “I feel that when I’m with people I love, that I’m really at home. And what a good feeling that is.” You can read that quote and agree that being with “your people” feels lovingly warm and secure. But when I read it again, from an all-people perspective, it encourages me to see this whole world as my home and all those around me as my neighbors.
I try and live by the scripture that states: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” My new phrase about home gives me a measuring stick for how I’m doing with that. If I’m with a “neighbor” that is very different from me and I do not feel at home, it may be that I’m struggling with loving them as myself.
“Heart is where the home is” brings me back to a place of loving and caring about all those around me and not just those that look or live like me. Then, I am truly at home.
If there's one person that would know about the home, that's Rhoda. She spends almost everyday of her life working with children in a ministry capacity. Discovering that home is much more than just the four walls in which we live, but more about heart.
