CRC Campus Ministry 40th Anniversary Celebration, 2008

Coming home

i

My hands can create
My heart can hold the stories
Of those who remember home
with joy
with pain,
those who like me, seek home,
Have lost home, who think they will
never find home again

Home has been
my holy grail
My longing
fuel for the quest

Community-making
Home-making
My call, my longing, my quest
Has spanned years and continents

ii

Home can be elusive
A place?
In my head?  In my heart?
Home is hard to define
but I do know
the shape of the longing

There have been days
When I could taste, touch and feel
What it means to be home
But it has been like a fluid
When I try to
contain it
hold it
in my hands
It slips through my fingers
And they are left with
The memory of its touch
My heart left with the memory
of its feel
Soul left with a lingering taste

iii

Home make
Home create
Tell stories
Live stories
Always hoping that
One of those stories
Will lead you home

iv

Early mornings, words in worship, wine, words in community,
laughter, rejoicing, struggle and tears
conversations long into the night over splashing water and clinking cutlery
shared love, shared faith, food for body, food for soul
wrestling, possibility, identity, sexuality, forgiveness, rest
story, scripture, embracing, prayer

I feel full

v

Stop and be
Surrender to Me
To community
Learn to receive
With open hands
And the giving is richer
Fuller, deeper

I will be your home

vi

Life giver
Community maker
Sustainer and creator
You are here
in our worship
our laughter
in our struggle
our words
in our silence

You are here

You fill us up
body, spirit, soul

I’ve learned to
Open my hands
my heart
To you God incarnate
To community

And the quest ends

I am here

The journey continues
But now
I know

I am home

~Bethany J. Osborne
  November 8, 2008