"There's no place like home." That thought rings true with most of us. There is just no place as warm, as happy, as welcoming as our home sweet home. Isn't this true especially around the holidays? But what is it about our home that makes it so special? Perhaps it's the feeling of familiarity. When you walk into your house you're met with familiar sights, familiar sounds and even familiar smells - good and bad. Perhaps it's the feeling of protection and safety that makes our house so special. Or maybe it's because when you walk into your house you are met with a calming sensation, a relaxation that is unique only to your home. After a long day, only your couch or your chair will melt all those anxieties and frustrations away. Perhaps it's the people who fill our house that make it so special. When you walk into your house you are met by your encouraging spouse, or your smiling children – people so special and so close to you that you feel incomplete when they aren't around.

Aren't these the things that lead us to say, "There's no place like home"? But is our home always a happy, healthy, calming environment? Are you living in a house that is full of yelling, fighting, and screaming? Maybe your house reminds you of sights and sounds that we'd rather forget. Maybe your house is a place empty of protection, safety and relaxation and full of unpaid bills, tension and despair. Maybe your house is no longer filled with the people you love; children have moved away, loved ones have passed away and families break apart.

Even this Christmas many will spend the holiday at home alone or without happiness. Even in the most special places here on earth, even in our own homes places are still filled with sin. Sin always brings consequences: frustration, anger, fear, doubt, tension and hate. But Jesus reminds us in his Word that there is still a place unlike any other, a place free from sin and its consequences, a place of pure happiness, warmth and joy...our heavenly home. Jesus made sure that each of us would one day be able to call heaven OUR home. Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14:1-3) By coming into this world, Jesus unlocked the door to heaven for us. By living a perfect life, he paid our way into our eternal home. By his death on the cross, Jesus cancelled the debt of sin that kept us out of heaven. His resurrection on Easter morning guaranteed that we too will rise to be with him forever in heaven.

Even though we aren't there yet, we can confidently say, "There's no place like home" because of our real home in heaven. Even though we are surrounded by the ugliness of sin in this world, we are comforted knowing that this is not our home. Jesus has given us his Word to constantly remind us where we are headed...we're on our way home. This Christmas, take time to reflect on why we celebrate this day. Jesus left his happy home to make sure we would always have one.

May God bless you this Christmas.