Home Lives in All of Us

The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.
Maya Angelou 

As we enter this holiday season, we know that for many people there is great anxiety and deeply conflicting feelings.  Our culture sends the message that the holidays are so much about families and our closest friends.  And while that is the ideal, we know that for many, many people their relationships are anything but ideal.  Contrary to all the messages about being grateful, about giving gifts and about spending concentrated time with our families and friends, for many, those times and occasions are fraught with resentment, pain, brokenness, anger, disappointment, and fear.  And for them, home in the traditional sense is not safe at all.  

For Maya Angelou, home was not safe when she was growing up: 

At the age of eight, while living with her mother, Angelou was sexually abused and raped by her mother’s boyfriend, Mr. Freeman. She confessed it to her brother, who told the rest of their family. Freeman was found guilty, but was jailed for only one day. Four days after his release, he was murdered, probably by Angelou’s uncles. Angelou became mute for almost five years, believing, as she has stated, “I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone …” (Wikipedia) 

For many years, Maya struggled with who she was and with the painful realities of “home”.  Home for her was marked by brokenness, betrayal, suffering, and shame.  

Perhaps, in some ways, it is for you too.  

We all need a home where we can be safe, where we can be understood, where we can be unconditionally loved.  Sometimes the homes of our birth are those places—and that is good.  We wish that for everyone; but, we know that for many that isn’t the case.  And for them, “home” must be found somewhere else.   

Our hope and our prayer for you this holiday season is that you could find “home”—that you could find that place of comfort and security and safety; that place where you will not be questioned and rejected; that place where you can open your soul and know that no matter what you will be taken in and enveloped by the warmth of love, grace, compassion, care, and acceptance.

Photo by Kelsey Chance on Unsplash