Homecoming

Today's passage:  Song of Solomon 7
     I'm having a puzzling time with some of the descriptions given to the bride.  Goblet navel, nose like a tower, fishpool eyes.  I can't figure out the comparisons and they don't make her sound all that beautiful.  The groom obviously intends them as compliments, but she sounds a bit like a carnival sideshow attraction. 
     At the end of the passage, the Shulamite is homesick.  She yearns to go back to her home near Lebanon.  She knows this place.  It is a part of her.  She feels comfortable here.  She is familiar with the sights, the sounds, the smells.  She knows every fruit tree, every vine and she has eaten fruit from each one.  She knows the townspeople in the nearby villages.  She calls out the name of each family.  Visiting home always evokes powerful emotions. 
     For me, home is where my family is.  Being a military kid, I've always struggled with the question "So, where are you from?"  I wasn't really from anywhere.  I could tell you the places I had lived.  None of those really qualified as home.  Missouri is probably the closest to being home because that is where my family settled, it is where my grandparents lived, it is where I finished high school and attended college.  When I think about home, I think about seeing my family, I think about visiting with friends, I think about the country life, so different from the city.  I have a sense of belonging.  I can identify with the Shulamite.  Going home is special. 
       The Shulamite woman felt out of place in Solomon's palace.  She wanted to see her brothers back home.  She wanted to shoo away the servants and do her own work.  She wanted to know if her vineyard had survived without her labors.  She wanted to feel comfortable again.  I will never really know Home until I get to Heaven. I will be welcomed into the arms of Him who died for me.  I will sprint down the streets of gold to find friends and loved ones who are already Home.  I will be with the One who knows me better than anyone here on earth.  I will be at ease.  I will be able to answer the question, "So, where are you from?"  Without hesitation, I will say, "Heaven."
     "What a day that will be!  When my Jesus I shall see, What a day, glorious day, that will be!"