Luke 15:11-20...Otherwise Entitled: HOME

*NOTE TO THE READER: This particular post is not a required one for my Book of Mormon class - I've decided that I kinda like blogging. So I said to myself: "Sam, you are your own man - it's your blog, you can write a post whenevs you want to." And so that's what I've decided to do. Be warned, though: Another blog will be coming later this week in conjunction with my religion class.
Don't say I didn't warn you.....

I am the kind of guy who enjoys to ramble (You'll hopefully notice that the word 'ramble' is cleverly hidden in the web address of this here blog). Get me started on a subject I love to talk about, and I'll ramble for hours. A prime example of that: The song "Wayfarin' Stranger". If you ever want a song that brings me to tears VERY quickly, start playing/singing "Wayfarin' Stranger". It is an old American folk hymn, and I absolutely love it. Two of the verses that I love especially are as follows:

"I am a poor wayfarin' stranger
While trav'lin' through this world of woe,
But there's no sickness, toil nor danger
In that bright land to which I go.

"I'm goin' there to see my father
I'm goin' there no more to roam,
I'm just a-goin' over Jordan,
I'm just a-goin' over home."

Beautiful lyrics, and a beautiful message as well. This song reminds me so much of my younger brother, who wept with me when we heard this song. Another song that he loved, another song that speaks of 'going home', was also sung at his funeral. It is appropriately named "Going Home"; there are multiple versions of it, but the one my brother loved was sung by Paul Robeson (if you get a chance, you should look it up on YouTube! You won't regret it :) A verse or two thereof:

"Going home, going home,
I'm just going home;
Quiet-like, some still day,
I'm just going home.

"Mother's there expecting me,
Father's waiting too;
Lots of folks gathered there,
All the friends I knew."

Both of these songs have the power to bring me to tears and to make me think so much of my brother. This past weekend, I've had a chance to come home - take a break from school and visit my parents and sisters -  and to visit the temple and learn more truths pertaining to our going to our eternal Home.
Throughout all of it the thoughts of home, my brother, and the eternities that await us after this life have been prevalent in my mind. I find myself standing alone in my bedroom, weeping as I miss my brother; I find myself staring at the grand vista of the mountains that encircle our little community, in awe of the God who crafted them from the shell of this earth; I find myself lost in thought about my family reunited once more, never to part again.
As I recollect on these various thoughts, and as I prepare to embark on the journey back to school once again, I am reminded of a certain story found in the Gospel of Luke. Please allow me to share it with you:
"...A certain man had two sons:
"And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that felleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.
"And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.
"And when he had spent all, there around a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.
"And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine [just a sidenote here: Swine/pigs were considered UNCLEAN in the Near Eastern culture. That just goes to show how bad this kid's situation was].
"And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat [in other words: he was so hungry he wanted to eat the unclean beasts' slop]: and no man gave unto him.
"And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
"I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,
"And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.
"And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him" (KJV Luke 15:11-20; emphasis added).
It saddens me greatly when I see or hear or read about all the sadness and sorrow of this world, all of the death and destruction that are part of our telestial existence. There are times when I get so frustrated with all the pigheadedness and pride and selfishness of the world - why can't everyone just be happy? But then I look at myself, and look at my own faults and frailties, and realized that global peace and happiness will surely be a long ways away if everyone is as proud and pigheaded as I am.
And yet, despite all of our faults, despite all of our mistakes, there is a God in Heaven who stands on the metaphorical horizon, watching for us from "a great way off". He wants us to turn around, to forsake the sorrows of this existence, and to come Home.
In Hebrew, there are multiple verbs that can be translated as 'to repent'. One of these verbs - the most prominent - can also be read as 'to return'. This is exactly right: When we repent, we return from our erring ways and come Home to our Heavenly Father.
In essence, this life is much like the college experience: We are raised in our Father's house, and then the time comes when we must leave His celestial courts on high to experience mortality. When our trials and tribulations, growth and pruning, learning and teaching, and strugglings and achievings have come to a mortal end, we return Home - I can't help but feel that our Father does exactly what the father of the parable in Luke does: When we are "a great way off", He sees us and runs and hugs us. And, if we have proved ourselves worthy in this mortal test, we are not only granted permission to live with Him again; He promises to teach us to build our own homes and establish our own families for the eternities to come.
You could say that this life is about GOING HOME. We are 'poor wayfaring strangers' in a "world of woe". We are not meant to be sad or sorrowful; we are meant to have joy. We are meant to repent and return Home. We are meant to 'come to ourselves' and we are meant to come back to our God.
I don't know the trials and the hardships in your lives, nor do I wish to; I don't pretend to comprehend the difficulties that you face each and every day, nor do I plan to. But I do know that we have the blessed opportunity to repent and come Home. Being back in my own bed, sitting on my own couch, being with my beloved family members once again - I have felt so much joy and love and hope and peace as of late, and I am reluctant to leave it behind when I must go back to school.
I am frightened to leave my earthly home behind.
And yet, as I sit here and contemplate that, I remember that although we may at times be separated from that particular home, we are always on our journey back to our eternal Home.
And we never make that journey alone.
In the Islamic faith it is held that there is always an angel on your right and left hand [this is a thought that I find very intriguing, interesting, beautiful, and thought-provoking]; in the LDS Doctrine and Covenants, Section 84, verse 88, we learn of "angels round about [us], to bear [us] up."
As I go through any hard or difficult or depressing times in my life, I find great comfort in applying this principle to my own life. I especially like to imagine the Savior walking beside me on one hand...and my younger brother walking beside me on my other, their arms wrapped around my shoulders, 'bearing me up'. Perhaps it is a childish notion, but it has certainly brought a great deal of peace and strength to my mind when my soul was the "sickness, toil [and] danger" of "Wayfarin' Stranger".
There are two forces at work in this world: a group of physical and spiritual entities, ideas, corporations, and groups that would destroy our souls and our chances of going Home; and a power of physical and spiritual beings, places, and literature that would help us to repent and return Home.
My prayer, as I depart my earthly home once again to go back to college, is that we shall all be able to recognize those on both this side and the other of the veil that would have us come Home again, and that we act upon their promptings and encouragements and forsake our own carnal desires for something of a brighter, more spiritual nature. My prayer is that I will be worthy and able enough to come Home and reunite with my family - with my sweet sisters, whose laughs are like those of the angels on high; with my parents, whose wisdom and counsel have buoyed me up in times of despair and trial; and with my brother, whose face I long to see again in this life, whose laugh I long to hear again, whose handshake I long to feel again. But for now, this is not my lot: For now I must live in a way that I will be reunited with all of them again; I must live in such a way as to meet my brother on the other side and hug him tightly, brothers never to be parted again.
And then...then I will hug my Elder Brother, He who died so that I might have this joyous reunion, He who suffered so that I might come Home to live with my earthly and my heavenly Family once again, He who is the foundation for my eternal Home.
And you too shall have this great joy and opportunity.
May we all repent and return. May we all recognize the good in this world and see the "angels round about [us]".
May we all come Home.

May God be with you till we meet again, my friends.

Sam