This world you seem to live in is not home to you. And somewhere in your
mind you know that this is true. A memory of home keeps haunting you, as
if there were a place that called you to return although you do not
recognize the Voice, nor what it is the Voice reminds you of. Yet still
you feel an alien here, from somewhere all unknown. Nothing so definite
that you could say with certainty you are an exile here. Just a
persistent feeling, sometimes not more than a tiny throb, at other times
hardly remembered, actively dismissed, but surely to return to mind
again.
No-one but knows whereof we speak. Yet some try to put by their
suffering in games they play to occupy their time, and keep their
sadness from them. Others will deny that they are sad, and do not
recognize their tears at all. Still others will maintain that what we
speak of is illusion, not to be considered more than but a dream. Yet who
in simple honesty, without defensiveness and self-deception, would deny
he understands the words we speak?
We speak today for everyone who walks this world, for he is not at home.
He goes uncertainly about in endless search, seeking in darkness what he
cannot find; not recognizing what it is he seeks. A thousand homes he
makes, yet none contents his restless mind. He does not understand he
builds in vain. The home he seeks can not be made by him. There is no
substitute for Heaven. All he ever made was hell.
Perhaps you think it is your childhood home that you would find again.
The childhood of your body and its place of shelter are a memory now so
distorted that you merely hold a picture of a past that never happened.
Yet there is a Child in you Who seeks His Father’s house, and knows that
He is alien here. This Childhood is eternal, with an innocence that will
endure forever. Where this Child shall go is holy ground. It is His
holiness that lights up Heaven, and that brings to earth the pure
reflection of the light above, wherein are earth and Heaven joined as
one.
It is this Child in you your Father knows as His Own Son. It is
this Child Who knows His Father. He desires to go home so deeply, so
unceasingly, His voice cries unto you to let Him rest a while. He does
not ask for more than just a few instants of respite; just an interval
in which He can return to breathe again the holy air that fills His
Father’s house. You are His home as well. He will return. But give Him
just a little time to be Himself, within the peace that is His home,
resting in silence and in peace and love.
This Child needs your protection. He is far from home. He is so little
that He seems so easily shut out, His tiny Voice so readily obscured,
His calls for help almost unheard amid the grating sounds and harsh and
rasping noises of the world. Yet does He know that in you still abides
His sure protection. You will fail Him not. He will go home, and you
along with Him.
This Child is your defenselessness, your strength. He trusts in you. He
came because He knew you would not fail. He whispers of His home
unceasingly to you. For He would bring you back with Him, that He
Himself might stay, and not return again where He does not belong and
where He lives an outcast in a world of alien thoughts. His patience has
no limits. He will wait until you hear His gentle Voice within you,
calling you to let Him go in peace, along with you, to where He is at
home, and you with Him.
When you are still an instant, when the world recedes from you, when
valueless ideas cease to have value in your restless mind, then will you
hear His Voice. So poignantly He calls to you that you will not resist
Him longer. In that instant, He will take you to His home, and you will
stay with Him in perfect stillness, silent and at peace, beyond all
words, untouched by fear and doubt, sublimely certain that you are at
home.
Rest with Him frequently today. For He was willing to become a little
child that you might learn of Him how strong is he who comes without
defenses, offering only love’s messages to those who think he is their
enemy. He holds the might of Heaven in His hand and calls them friend,
and gives His strength to them that they may see He would be Friend to
them. He asks but they protect Him, for His home is far away, and He
will not return to it alone.
Christ is reborn as but a little Child each time a wanderer would leave
his home. For he must learn that what he would protect is but
this Child, Who comes defenseless and Who is protected by
defenselessness. Go home with Him from time to time today. You are as
much an alien here as He.
Take time today to lay aside your shield which profits nothing, and lay
down the spear and sword you raised against an enemy without existence.
Christ has called you friend and brother. He has even come to you to ask
your help in letting Him go home completed and completely. He has come
as does a little child who must beseech his father for protection and
for love. He rules the universe, and yet He asks unceasingly that you
return with Him, and take illusions as your gods no more.
You have not lost your innocence. It is for this you yearn. This is your
heart’s desire. This is the voice you hear, and this the Call which
cannot be denied. The holy Child remains with you. His home is yours.
Today He gives you His defenselessness, and you accept it in exchange
for all the toys of battle you have made. And now the way is open, and
the journey has an end in sight at last. Be still a moment and go home
with Him and be at peace a while.