This Place Is Not My Home

One of my favorite songs lately is called Where I Belong by Building 429. One of the lines in the song says; All I know is i'm not home yet, this is where I belong, take this world and give me Jesus, this is not where I belong. How true is that to those of us who know that heaven is truly our home. We are only just passing through and one day we will be home. Home with all those who have gone before us and who we miss dearly. One day that pain of missing them won't be there anymore and instead we will be holding our loved ones. What reunion that will be.
One of my goals for this new year is to blog more on here. Writing my thoughts and maybe helping others who are in this same boat we are in. Some of you may have already heard this story but I feel that I need to write it hear to one day look back on. We spent Christmas in TN with Jon's family in a big house. We had lots of fun all week long but we were looking forward to being back home. Our drive from TN to home was about 16 hours. We left on Saturday morning and headed for Peoria, IL where we would be staying over night. The first 8 hours went well but we were all ready to be out of the fox (our suburban) and have more space. The next morning we slept in and kind of were taking out time heading out. We had thought about taking the kids to the zoo on the way home but as we went outside we realized that it was very cold, rainy, and icy. So we packed everyone back in the fox and started to head for the highway. As we were going down the road we witnessed a very bad accident due to the icy roads. I have never in my life saw anything like we were seeing right in front of us. Jon had me call 911 right away and we immediately pulled over to see if we could help. 5 people we in a truck and 3 of them got ejected from the truck. None of them were wearing their seat belts. Jon got out right away and tried to help as best he could. 2 people were down a hill and one person was on the other side of the guard rail. Sadly one of them went to her heavenly home. The other two were ok but needed help. After we were able to leave we decided not to go home and risk another accident ourselves so instead we went back to the hotel and spent the night. We learned later that night that the girl who passed away was 16 year old Brooklyn Armstrong.
My heart broke for this family in so many ways. I hurt for them in a way that I know how this all feels. That night in the hotel room I felt God tugging at my heart to somehow try and reach this family just to let them know that we were there and that we were praying for them. I was able to do that by looking up Brooklyn's name and found a blog that her pastor had wrote. When I read that she was saved that made my heart a little happier because I knew that she truly was home and that one day I would be able to meet her in person. Last week I was able to talk to Brooklyn's mom over the phone which only God could have done.  She had lots of questions about the accident and what we saw. Her heart is hurting and she just wanted to process this whole tragedy as best she could. She was very thankful that we reached out to them. The one comment she made that really struck me was; she said the only thing that had gotten her though the funeral was what I had wrote on that pastor's blog. WOW How do you respond to that other than to say that God must have wanted us there at that time on December 29.
She shared about Brooklyn and what she was like, how good of a kid she was, what she liked. I am so glad that I got to in some small way help her and her family through this time. I have talked to her a few times since this first call. She also asked all about Lindsay and what her story was. She said that Brooklyn loved kids and she was sure that Lindsay and Brooklyn have already met. Even though our stories are different they are still the same. Lindsay's story still continues to help people through hard times like these. One more thing struck me about Brooklyn that happened a week or so before this accident. She had told someone that she had a personal relationship with Christ, and she wanted to work on her relationship with God. Who knew other than God that she would be truly doing that now.
So I ask you how is your relationship with God? Do you need to work on getting to know him better? I know this challenged me to spend more time in God's word. It's not to late to start working on this and to work on your home being in heaven.

I know this is a really long post but it's one that I have been thinking about for days. Please pray for Brooklyn's family. Pray for healing of their hearts, pray for peace and comfort that only God can give them at this time. I am praying that I will be able to still keep in contact with her.