HOMECOMING…
LENA HAS HAD A FOREVER-HOME HOMECOMING!
Have you ever attended a small, country Church Homecoming? I grew up in a Church that had a Homecoming every year. It was a very special time for me and my family. It was always the last Sunday in August and we always had new clothes (hand-sewn by my Grandmother) and new shoes. Homecoming was like Easter for us. It was a huge, huge thing. We had dinner on the grounds and a special “singing” after lunch. I have wonderful memories of homecoming during my childhood. 🙂
Well, this past Sunday, I attended homecoming at the Church my husband grew up in. Like my childhood Church, it is a small Church out in the country with beautiful people who remain as down-to-earth as anyone I’ve ever seen. The Church service was wonderful, but after the service, when we all sat around and talked and shared memories…well, that’s what makes homecoming homecoming.
As we filled our plates high with the best home-cooking you’ve ever tasted, I looked around and listened to all the laughter and kidding. There were people in their nineties and babies just a couple of weeks old…new generations mixed in with older generations, but all had come home. All had come back to roots, back to love, laughter, and forever-friendships. All were there to feel that wonderful feeling that your heart has when you see your loved ones after a separation, that feeling you get when you go home.
My heart has been heavy with the way my mare looks–my new mare, mama of the new colt. And while I sat there enjoying the food, laughter and bonding with everyone at the Church homecoming, I kept telling myself that she has had a forever-home homecoming. At the time, I knew nothing of her history. I didn’t know where she had been foaled, where she had wound up over the years, but I suspected that she had been over-bred and had probably had a lot of different owners.
Well, guess what happened on Monday (the day after the Church homecoming)? Remember, this mare was rescued from slaughter by the man who is building our barn. Well, I am at the barn site early on Monday morning and he says, “Charity, I finally remembered to bring you this paper”.
He was holding out a piece of paper as he was talking. I reached for it and was quite surprised to see a smaller/younger version of my new mare in the top right corner of the page.
