A little boy named Danny lived with his family in a trailer. One day someone asked him, “Don’t you wish you had a real home?” Danny’s reply was wise beyond his years. He said, “We have a real home. We just don’t have a house to put it in.”

A house and a home are very different. A house is just a physical structure, made perhaps of brick or wood or stone. It can be large or small. It may not have people inside. If a house does not include people, the house is not really a home.

By contrast, a home is a haven of shelter, acceptance, and unconditional love. It includes at least one person. In a home, each person’s value is unlimited, and their mutual commitment is forever.

Any decent contractor can construct a house, but only God can build a home. *

Family: that’s what makes a house into a home.

It is God’s design that when a child is born into the world, the child is born into a family.  It is also God’s design that our families be characterized by love, respect, nurturing, and even forgiveness.  These qualities are what makes a house into a home.

Many families strive to practice these virtues to turn their houses into homes.  They experience success and they also fail at times.  These families find that there are many forces at work that try to divide and even disintegrate the family.

One thing will always be true: families are made up of imperfect people.  “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  Yet it is because we are imperfect that we need a family.  Each of us needs to be loved, accepted, and even lovingly corrected by others.  This kind of family provides the right environment that enables us to grow to maturity.

You may or may not have (or had) the kind of family where love, acceptance, and support are (or were) shared.  You may have even contributed to the dysfunction of your family.

But here’s the Good News: God wants each of us to be a part of His family.  He sent His Son to pay the price for our redemption from sin (Ephesians 1:7).  You can be “born again” into God’s family, the church (Galatians 3:26-27).  By God’s design, His family (the church) is made up of imperfect people that learn to love, support, and forgive one another because that is what our Father does for us (see Ephesians 4:25-32).

To those who surrender their lives to Him in trusting obedience, God says, “Welcome home.”

-- David A. Sargent