A few weeks ago, I was having lunch with a recently transplanted friend from church. She made the statement that their frequent trips "home" were probably making the transition to living in Florida more difficult, rather than easier.

There's a lot of truth to this statement. But I remember one of the more miserable times of my own much-relocated tween/teen years when I saved my pennies for a trip back to visit friends. It was nice...but not the same. Life--and the relationships I thought were so firmly established--had continued to move on while I was gone. Without day to day contact, the foundation for those friendships crumbled. This pattern repeated itself with every relocation.

This hasn't been the case with my adulthood, where I feel abundantly blessed with quality relationships. I recently had the privilege of returning to Phoenix to speak at a conference for my publisher. I was able to catch up with so many friends...and it was like we had just seen each other days, not months or years, before. I was encouraged, refreshed, and blessed.

What made the difference? I'm doubting that it's our relative "maturity" or even the addictive convenience of the Internet or F*cebook. Rather, the friendships I've been blessed with as an adult are by and large built on the foundation of Christ's love. All of the friends I reunited with in Arizona share the knowledge that the earth is not our home, and that someday we'll all be "home" together.

Personaly, I can't wait. But in the meantime, big thank-you hugs to all of you out in the desert.

It felt just like being home.