Hamewith

Suggested listening: “In My Father’s House” by Steve Green & “Welcome Home” by Elevation Worship & SEU

“How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty!
…Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere…”
~Psalm 84:1, 10~

“And it’s hame, hame, hame
Hame fain wad I be.”
~Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South~

“Midway, the wanderer is weary,
fain he’d be turning in his prime
Hamewith — the road that’s never dreary,
back where his heart is a’ the time.”
~Charles Murray~

From Old Scottish, Hamewith is where we truly come home to, an Eden where our hearts feel at rest, the “stomping grounds” of our youth, a place to where we can “hang our hats” and drop our bags. Literally meaning “homeward bound,” Leanne Payne described it as the “home within” us where Christ dwells. “He is behind me, overlooking my work; in front of me, blessing me as I look up to Him. He is all around me; He is even within me.”[1]

In my side entry, the sizes of our collective assortment of shoes and bags have grown larger over the years and two owners less more recently, depending on the seasons of the school calendar. But I still trip over the assemblage of shoes, although we have a system for containing them. That pile reminds me there will come a day when their owners find their homes elsewhere, so for now I will savor this season.

Our hearts are forever longing for home. Books and movies like “Homeward Bound” set their plots around the journey back to where we came from. The apostle John reminds us of this journey back home, saying that our sights should be set on our spiritual stomping grounds when he gives us the imperative to “not let your hearts be troubled … My Father’s house has many rooms … I go and prepare a place for you” (John 14:1-3).

The psalmist too paints a picture of this place for us in Psalm 84, describing its accolades that are better than anywhere else! He writes that we are blessed when we set our sights toward this eternal dwelling, and that we find what we are searching for in Him. No matter where our feet trod in our pilgrimage here on earth, He is our Resting Place, our inner Sabbath rest when all else may be hectic and schedules may be chaotic. We come back Home when we find our souls at rest in Him. Our Home Within.

And so, too, may my children find their way back home when they are older, just as my husband and I find solstice in visiting with our folks, even though their physical stomping grounds have shifted over the years, too. In his book Sabbath, Wayne Muller explains that“One of the most precious gifts we can offer is to be a place of refuge, to be Sabbath for one another.” [2]

And while it is true that there is the occasional fellow traveler that doesn’t know how to return Sabbath while here on our earthly pilgrimage, we can provide solstice for them, a Sabbath resting place. For those who have faced harsh criticism, who have lived under unfair narratives for much of their lives, who have been victims, who haven’t had a place to hang their hat—we can help be the neutralizing effect and provide a place at our table for them. We can show them they are welcome into our home within; there is space at our table for them.

“I loved the home we have left so dearly!
… I cannot tell you half its beauty.
There are great trees standing all about it,
with their branches stretching long and level,
and making a deep shade of rest even at noonday.”
 ~Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South, P. 99~

“Home is where you are truly safe.
It is where you can receive what you desire.
You need human hands to hold you there so you don’t run away again.
But when you come home and stay home,
you will find the love that will bring rest to your heart.”
~Henri Nouwen, The Inner Voice Of Love, p.12~

“I have come home at last!
This is my real country!
I belong here.
This is the land I have been looking for all my life,
 though I never knew it till now…
Come further up, come further in!”
~C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle~

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

[1] Leanne Payne. The Healing Presence. Grand Rapids, MI: Hamewith Books, 2005.

[2] Muller, Wayne. Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives. Bantam Books: New York, 2000.