I'm sure most people can agree that a university has a homey aspect that invites all of its students, alumni, and faculty in. Growing up in a college town, I knew this fact at a very early age. I was born and raised in Starkville, MS, home of the Mississippi State Bulldogs, practically holding a cowbell in my hand since birth. Deciding on a college was no challenge whatsoever for me, for I knew my heart was true maroon. As I moved into my dorm room on campus just a few weeks back, I immediately felt at home. Yes, I definitely had a leg up above the rest in terms of knowing where to go eat and having a place to go get loads of laundry done for free instead of wasting precious Sonic change. However, Starkville felt like a completely different town on move-in day. The three miles away from my house quickly felt like three hours. Nonetheless, I almost instantaneously found my new home, or what I would learn just a few days later, one of my new homes.
In my first few weeks of college, everything that I was becoming involved with and everybody I was hanging around became family. I was so lucky to have been a part of New Maroon Camp, which let me move in a few days before the bulk of freshman moved in. Around 300 of the new students attending New Maroon Camp formed a home. Later that same week, the rest of the students moved in, and I got to help move loads and loads and loads of stranger’s things up many flights of stairs. Those "strangers" quickly were not strangers anymore, for we became family and were now fellow residents of our new dorm and home. The next week was Sorority Recruitment, and I got to become a part of another amazing home with so many new sisters running and screaming with open arms full of excitement and glitter. Within each of these homes, I began to make closer connections and made smaller homes. With everything I did, I began carrying a whole lot of welcome mats.
I feel like life can sometimes be like a trip to the grocery store. We all know we make a little list of things we absolutely need and will starve without; but as we begin to push the buggy through Wal-Mart, our list fades and there are ice cream cartons, princess gummies, and several bags of animal crackers covering the items we were originally seeking out. All of my new homes in college started to feel like ice cream cartons, princess gummies, and bags of animal crackers. I was forgetting my main purpose and my ultimate home.
Sometimes in life, we get so excited about living that we forget about our home in Heaven. We get soaked up with the short years we have on earth and can stray away from the Lord, but why do we do this? As great as my homes are on campus and in Starkville, they will not last. I can cherish these homes and pour all of my soul and being into them, but their years are numbered. The only home that isn't on a timeline is the home we all can have in Heaven, and its doors are always opened for us with things much better and fulfilling than ice cream, princess gummies, and animal crackers.
Enjoy your homes on earth, but always remember and seek the one you have eternally!
~ 1 Corinthians 4:18 ~
