Nothing yells as loudly as an empty house. That's my made-up proverb for today. We had about thirty people here for the long Thanksgiving weekend and the last ones left for home yesterday. Boy is it quiet today. We went to Pizza Hut buffet for lunch after church, (you'll remember from earlier entries that's my favorite comfort food) but I still couldn't shake the blues. Sometime tonight, though, while we were watching an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, I snapped back to normal and was able to savor the time with my immediate family doing something the four of us enjoy that no one else in our extended family understands. I think they always expect us to turn up at the next family gathering wearing Star Fleet uniforms with kid-sized ones for the girls.

This was a cool episode. Course: Oblivion. Halfway thru the episode, the crew figures out that they're duplicates. Turns out they were un-sentient lifeforms from a demon class planet Voyager had run onto several episodes back. The crew donated samples of their DNA before leaving the planet so that the lifeforms could become sentient. After awhile, the newly-aware lifeforms, now looking just like the crew members, forgot where they came from and began to think they were the real Voyager crew, so they tried to get to Earth. But once they left the safety of their radiation-soaked atmosphere they were doomed as their cells broke down at the molecular level. They did turn back toward their real home finally, after much death and suffering.

Sometimes we do that. Forget where we came from, forget where we're going. Forget that it's not imperative for us to fit in on this crazy planet. We sang a song tonight at church - I can't feel at home in this world anymore. As I said those words, I wondered how true they are for me. Sometimes I feel too at home in this world. The part of my life that centers on God becomes the add-on, the extra, the thing I fit in when I can around my "real life". I'm thankful God has given me the ability and desire to constantly turn back to Him when I lose my focus. And I'm thankful for His grace that covers me as I bumble along trying to get home.

Love and peace to all and to all a goodnight!