Homeland

My sister is moving back to Oregon. I am thrilled for her but I am also jealous. My husband says you can take the girl out of Oregon but never Oregon out of the girl. My ears perk up whenever Oregon is in the news, I tend to favor products produced in Oregon, there is an immediate connection with anyone who spent any length of time in that general area and I informed our landscaper that I was not interested in Kentucky versions of "evergreens"--I grew up in the Pacific Northwest!

Not everyone shares this phenomenon of loving their home region, but my parents did. My mother claimed that nothing cleaned as well as the German soap; nothing healed as well as the German ointment; and nothing tasted as good as the German chocolate (that last point may have been correct, though Oregon berries are in close competition).

My siblings and I still chuckle over the trips to the foreign place of  my father's homeland. As soon as we crossed the defining border of Snake River and a sign welcomed us to Idaho, my dad would start in: The air was fresher, the sky bluer, the ground greener (this is strictly a matter of the definition of green), the roads better, the people kinder, and we usually then heard him break into "Home, Home on the Range".

As much as I love Oregon, God reminded me that even this beautiful state was not my home. My true home is in heaven with Him. He is my Creator. All that I am comes from Him. In Him I move and have my being. He is Home and He is preparing a home for me. His homeland is my true origin and destination. The products from there are sweeter and better able to do what they are supposed to do. The environment is purer and more vibrant. The immediate connections I have with believers on earth (including my friends in S. California) are because of our mutual homeland. Every good and perfect gift is from the Father above and it is all sweeter because it comes from my true homeland.