GodReflection: What Make God Smile?
I have a love/hate association with the word homecoming. Here is what I’ve noticed. Where relationships were genuine I’m drawn to return. Where friendships were shallow—perhaps not so much.

The book of Genesis tells the story of the patriarch Jacob. One thread of that account is Jacob’s homecomings. Due to Jacob’s collusion with his mother Rebekah against his twin brother and his father, he fled in temporary exile to his uncle’s house. His safety was to be found at his mother’s childhood home. The Bible describes the scene of his arrival:

As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he hurried to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, and there Jacob told him all these things. Then Laban said to him, “You are my own flesh and blood” (Genesis 9:13-14).

Smiles and Joy filled the home. Although it was a first time experience It was his new home. In a sense he had returned home—at least to a home of kindship. The atmosphere was saturated with homecoming.

Jacob’s second homecoming was twenty years later. He did not look toward this one with happy anticipation. In fact, he feared how his brother Esau might receive him.

But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept (Genesis 33:4).

Smiles must have broken through the tears of Joy. It was his homecoming.

Sometime later Jacob had a homecoming encounter with God when the Almighty told him to return to Bethel where decades before he first met Holy God. There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel, because it was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother (Genesis 35:7).

Fast forward perhaps as much as thirty years. Jacob had lived for the past two decades with the lie of his son Joseph’s death. His son was now the second most powerful man in the nation of Egypt. This time Jacob’s homecoming was with his dearly loved son.

Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time. Israel said to Joseph, “Now I am ready to die, since I have seen for myself that you are still alive” (Genesis 46:29-30).

Jacob arrived at a new home. Through the embrace and the tears Jacob could not hide his heart. It must have beat with joy and glowed with a smile. The locale did not matter. He was home again with his son.

In Egypt his adopted home he lived the last seventeen years of his life. From his sickbed he gathered his family around him. With his last bit of strength, he raised his old bones to sit and let his feet rest on the floor. After he blessed them and said his goodbyes he was ready for his final homecoming.

When Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people (Genesis 49:33).

Even as the God of the universe joined the family in the room with their pain of age and hurt from loss, He must have had a smile across His heart. In a holy nanosecond He rehearsed the one hundred forty-seven years of Jacob’s life. It was a life that grew from sin tainted humanness to total trust in his Creator Father.
God must have beam at the thought of his homecoming to be gathered to his people.

When I let my imagination flow I envision how the Father the creator of relationship fulfilment must joyfully participate in the reunions of His children. Surely, it thrills His heart anytime there is an occasion to return home. Isn’t that act a rehearsal of a divine trait inherited from the Father? How He smiles when we reunite with those we love.

Yet, like the old patriarch there is the homecoming of all homecomings. For children of Father God anticipate the grand reception at the homecoming hosted in the fullness of Holy Presence in the next reality.

We look forward to the words of welcome: Well done, good and faithful servant. We will be home at last and I suspect God will display the most heartfelt grand smile we have ever witnessed.

Stay tuned.

Dr. Gary J. Sorrells
A GodReflection: God Smiles At Homecomings

Gary@Godreflection.org
http://www.GodReflection.org
http://www.MakeYourVisionGoViral.com