Our Daily Bread

[Dexu Xia]

Home for Christmas

I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. Genesis 28:15

One year Christmas found me on assignment in a place many of my friends couldn’t locate on a map. Trudging from my worksite back to my room, I braced against the chill wind blowing off the bleak Black Sea. I missed home.

When I arrived at my room, I opened the door to a magical moment. My artistic roommate had completed his latest project—a nineteen-inch ceramic Christmas tree that now illuminated our darkened room with sparkling dots of color. If only for a moment, I was home again!

A Light has entered the world to show us the way home.

As Jacob fled from his brother Esau, he found himself in a strange and lonely place too. Asleep on the hard ground, he met God in a dream. And God promised Jacob a home. “I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying,” He told him. “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring” (Gen. 28:13–14).

From Jacob, of course, would come the promised Messiah, the One who left His home to draw us to Himself. “I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am,” Jesus told His disciples (John 14:3).

That December night I sat in the darkness of my room and gazed at that Christmas tree. Perhaps inevitably I thought of the Light that entered the world to show us the way home.

Lord, no matter where we are today, we can thank You for preparing a place for us to be with You. And we have the presence of Your Spirit today!

Home is not so much a place on a map, as it is a place to belong. God gives us that place.

领我回家

我也与你同在，你无论往哪里去，我必保佑你，领你归回这地。-创世记28章15节

有一年圣诞节，我因工作而到了偏远的黑海地区。那天，我顶着强烈的寒风，步履维艰地从工作地点走回住宿的房间。那时候，我迫切地想念那温暖的家。

然而一打开房门，迎接我的却是个意外的惊喜。我那极具艺术天分的室友完成了他最新的创作，一棵48公分高的陶制圣诞树，正闪烁着五彩缤纷的圣诞灯，照亮了黑漆漆的房间。在那一瞬间，我仿佛回到了温暖的家！

当雅各逃离他的哥哥以扫时，他也同样置身异地，心感孤寂。他睡在坚硬的地上，在梦中遇见了上帝，而上帝应许给他一个家。上帝对他说：“我要将你现在所躺卧之地赐给你和你的后裔。……地上万族必因你和你的后裔得福。”（创世记28章13-14节）

上帝所应许的弥赛亚就是雅各的后裔。这位弥赛亚离开祂天上的家，来到世上，为要引领我们归向祂。耶稣也对门徒说：“我……必再来接你们到我那里去；我在哪里，叫你们也在那里。”（约翰福音14章3节）

在那个圣诞夜晚，我坐在幽暗的房间里，凝视着那棵闪闪发光的圣诞树。不禁想起，那道真光进入世界，为要引领我们回家。

主啊，感谢祢，因为祢为我们预备了天上的家，
使我们将来能与祢同住，
而且祢的灵此时就与我们同在！

家是一个上帝所赐的归属之地