I'll be Home for Christmas

“I’ll be Home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.”

  Have you ever noticed that many of the Christmas movies center around home and family? Most of us have a mental picture of the perfect Christmas scene – a peaceful picture of home with loving family gathered together for the holiday. Yet, even when everything is seemingly perfect, there’s still some dull nagging in our hearts that there’s something more. Even when we’re home, in an ideal, nearly perfect home…there’s an innate longing for something else, a longing for the perfect home.

  Home has a powerful influence on us. Billions are spent annually by those retracing their ancestry. Those who were foreign born long to return home, even if home is continents away. Home is such a powerful part of our make-up that children who never find a place where they feel they belong struggle with an incapacity for attachment into their adult lives.

  Most of us have had the nostalgia longing for a special place from our youth…the family home or annual vacation place. It carries a very special spot in our hearts. Yet, if we have the opportunity to return to the actual place, it’s filled with disappointment. It doesn’t live up to our expectations. The reality of actually being there leaves us with a sense of loss. 

  That song, “I’ll be home for Christmas” has long been one of my favorites. Originally recorded in 1943 by Bing Crosby, it became a top hit. It was written to honor American soldiers overseas who longed to be home at Christmas. It’s sung from the point of view of a soldier stationed on a foreign battlefield during World War II, writing a letter to his family. In the message, he tells his family he’ll be coming home and to prepare the holiday for him. He requests snow, mistletoe and presents on the tree. It ends on a melancholy note, with the soldier saying, “I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.”

  The U.S. War Department released Crosby’s performance of the song in a December 7, 1944 broadcast. It touched the hearts of Americans, soldiers and civilians alike, in the midst of World War II and became the most requested song at Christmas U.S.O shows. GI magazine, Yank, said Crosby had “accomplished more for military morale than anyone else of that era.” 

  It wasn’t until college that I recall ever hearing that song but it became very special to me my junior year. That year, I had no Christmas plans and was staying in the dormitories for the entire holiday season. On Christmas Eve, I worked a 16 hour shift through Christmas morning as a security guard at Brownberry Ovens in Oconomowoc. It was one of the few times that they shut down all year and they needed someone in the plant. Needless, to say it was a very lonely Christmas. 

  Yet, even in the most idyllic home and Christmas gathering, the child of God still senses it. We are not Home yet. The Apostle Peter refers to us as “sojourners and exiles” (1 Peter 2:11). Add to that, believers in Christ are soldiers engaged in spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:10). Deep within us there’s a longing that nothing on this side of eternity can satisfy or suppress. We want to be Home. It’s great to know that we’re on the winning side, but we often grow weary of the battle.

  Home, then, is a powerful but elusive concept. The strong feelings that surround it reveal that deep longing that we all have within us for a place that suits us, where we can be or perhaps find, our true selves. Even with the very best Christmas, there’s a sense of “Is this it? Is this all there is?” No place, home, or actual family satisfies those yearnings, though many situations arouse them. The concept of home awakens a desire that just can’t be totally fulfilled, so we end up disappointed under the weight of our own impossible expectations. Why? We are made for another Home.

  As we turn to the pages of Scripture, Hebrews 13:14 encourages us to remember and find strength in the fact that “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” It’s a losing battle to pursue lasting satisfaction in this life. The words, “here we have no lasting city” drive us to the only source of contentment on this side of Home: the promise that Christ is always with us (Matthew 28:20) on our journey because we’re not Home yet. He’s bringing us home to a place where love, joy, and satisfaction never end. As Randy Alcorn writes, “Things won't always take a better turn on an Earth that is under the curse. Sickness, loss, grief, and death will find us. Just as our reward will come in Heaven, laughter (itself one of our rewards) will come in Heaven.” Christmas, then, is a reminder that Jesus, in the Incarnation, left His Home in Heaven for us so that we could have a true Home.

  In another December, December of 1903, after multiple attempts, the Wright brothers were finally successful in getting their “flying machine” off the ground. Thrilled, they telegraphed this message to their sister Katherine: “We have actually flown 120 feet. Will be home for Christmas.”

  Katherine hurried to the editor of the local paper and showed him the message. He glanced at it and said, “How nice. The boys will be home for Christmas.” He totally missed the big news, man had finally flown. 

  Many at Christmas miss the biggest news. They’re looking for Home here but Jesus came so we could have a Home there, a perfect and everlasting one. Jesus came to this earth, took on human flesh, lived a perfect life, died for us thus paying our debt of sin so that we can have a Home where there’s no more pain, dissatisfaction or death. It’s His Christmas gift to us. Your name is on the tag (John 3:16). So have you accepted God’s Christmas gift to you so that you can have a real Home for all eternity? 

Can we help you spiritually? Can we help you know Jesus better? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or, call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address.