Of all the secret hide-aways nestled in the sprawling multi-acre camp, the spot that called me was the fence. Suzie, our retreat hostess, made the gentle offer,

Find a quiet space where you can spend time with Him.

The camp that held the retreat was beautiful.

A lake.

A creek and tumbling spillway.

Wooded paths and hidden chapels.

And yet it was a long fence line that offered the warmest invitation.

If I closed my eyes I could see an ocean of prairie grass waving. I could hear the chatter of starlings as they trotted across cow paths.

I could transport myself back to decades prior and relish memories of building fence with my Mom and Sis. Driven steel poles and strung barbwire kept horses (and hearts) from roaming.

I didn’t realize at the time that the camaraderie (and comedy) that accompanied miles of fence building was a gift. The experience formed a boundary of its own. One in which three women knew there would always be a safe place to go.

No wonder the fence felt right.

The added bonus was the horse dung twenty feet away. The familiar smell triggered memories of ornery horses that needed breaking and faithful mares who to this day inspire my motherhood.

Fences and horse poop. Apparently, my love language.

Ever since I can remember, home and family were the single most important thing to me.

My roots.

Thirty years later I find myself hitting pause, sitting by fences and feeling homesick as I wonder,

What is home?

Perhaps it’s…

A place where you’re loved unconditionally, where forgiveness flows as naturally as the inhalation of grace and exhalation of mercy.
Lit candles because someone cared enough to strike a match.
A finite mind’s way of wrapping itself around a God that speaks people into being and black holes into collapse.
Supper, every night because someone sacrificed the labor to provide it and the time to prepare it.
A continuum of shared jokes, shared secrets and exposed vulnerability.

I believe home is where it all starts.

I’m not so sure it isn’t the closest thing to God there is on this planet.

I can’t help but think that since we couldn’t come to Him, He came to us… with an invitation.

An invitation to come home.

Some of us have found it.

Some of us are looking for it (maybe we’re not sure we ever had it).

Some of us are circling our way back to it.

Wherever we are in the journey, the invitation stands.

Come with me.

Come home.

Today I’m passing this invitation on to you. I was blessed to receive it from Suzie Eller in her book Come With Me. The book was released in the Spring of 2016. It was during that Come With Me retreat I first heard my invitation to come home.

Suzie has another invitation for us and she shares it in her newly released Come With Me Devotional. She calls it our “right now invitation”. Three weeks ago I attended her Come With Me Devotional retreat and I heard God’s sweet invitation again. Only this time it was from the tender, robust heart of a good Father.

My right now invitation was to climb in His lap.

It wrecked me girls. Completely. Totally.

Wrecked me.

He has an invitation for you too.

Do you know what it is?

If you’re not sure, join me for Suzie’s study on 21 Life-Changing Invitations from Jesus. It’s free. And it’s easily accesible online.