The Day I left Home to come Home
“Sit back, relax and enjoy your flight,” the captain announced.
My husband and I held hands and said a quiet prayer.
Tears flowing down our faces spoke what our mouths couldn’t express. I closed my eyes and tried to obey the captain.
The plane took off, leaving behind not only our country, but a piece of my heart as well.
It seemed like yesterday when my husband surprised me with the news:
“Honey, I just got an offer to work in the United States. It’s a private practice in Athens, Georgia, a college town near Atlanta.”
“What?” I cried “But we don’t know anyone there, and our whole family’s here!”
“But think of all the opportunities for the children,” he said, “and professionally for us as well.”
And so began a series of conversations weighing the options, making lists of pros and cons, asking advice from family and friends.
We rode interminable rollercoasters of emotions for months as we tried to make our final decision, plagued with “what ifs” and “should we’s” and “could we’s”.
Do we go or do we stay?
Until one Spring evening, one day before my husband had to accept or reject the offer.
“Let’s pray about it,” he said. “Ultimately it doesn’t matter what we want or think we should do. We want to do the God’s will.”
“That’s true,” I responded, “Even when it might not make sense, we want to trust that His plans for us are always better than our own.”
We held hands, surrendered our lives, our families and our future to the Lord and went to sleep.
I got up extra early to pray and realized my husband had stayed up all night praying.
“I know what we have to do,” he declared “the Lord spoke into my heart.”
He opened his Bible to Genesis 12:1
“Go away from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you
Abram had no idea where he was going or what he would encounter. He had no internet to give him information or GPS to guide his way. He relied solely on his obedience by faith. In return the Lord blessed him immensely.
“Ok,” I said, “We got our answer so let’s make that phone call.”
We had three months to pack and move.
“Flight attendants, prepare for landing,” the captain’s voice over the speaker jerked me back to reality.
The flight was almost over, but our new life was about to begin.
I looked out the window. The clouds were dissipating enough to reveal the city’s skyline. Skyscrapers, houses and buildings spread as far as my eyes could see.
Gone were the tall mountains and green valleys, the colorful flowers and the warmth of the tropics.
A fight broke out inside my head between the homesickness from leaving family and the peace that comes from obeying God.
The moment the landing gear hit the runway, an unexpected burst of joyful expectation erupted inside my heart.
My husband offered his hand to help me up.
“Welcome home,” he said. “The new home Jesus chose for us. And as long as He is with us, we know that will be alright.”
I walked out of that airplane with my head held high and with a smile on my face, ready to embrace my new life.
The blessings our family has experienced have been far above and beyond anything we could ever dream or imagined.
Today we remember that day, sixteen years ago, when my family and I left home to come home.
