Sometimes you just need to go home. This weekend I’m in my childhood home with my parents. Just me…no husband, no kids, no siblings. Just me.

As a parent, I always want my kids to know that they can come home when they need to. My younger son is living with us after his college graduation and before his new place opens up. My older daughter is preparing to go to college about three hours away. My oldest son and his wife live 30 minutes away. My youngest daughter is working at an overnight camp for several weeks this summer. But I always want them to know that they can come home any time they need to. They can come home to do laundry, eat homemade food, and chill. Their rooms may not look the same when they come back, but the feeling of home is so much more than stuff.

I’m sleeping in the same room that I did as a teenager, even though it looks much different. I’m sitting in the sun room that used to be the porch where we had my graduation party years ago. My first bedroom with the rainbow shag carpet is now my dad’s office with wood floors and bookshelves lining the walls. But this weekend I’m just a daughter, loved and accepted, broken pieces and all.

Even though I haven’t lived at home since I graduated, this is home. At holidays, I watch the delight of my parents at having all of their children together in one place. During a difficult season in our marriage, I needed to come home with the kids. My dad told me that it was fine to come visit, but reminded me that I would need to go home. This wasn’t a problem that I could run away from. In my current season of a difficult job transition, they have welcomed me home for a weekend with extended family. I’m not running away, but finding much needed respite from a busy and stressful season.

Home is something we all long for. A place where we are known and loved just as we are. It’s the place with the Father that the Princess can find without traveling at all. A moment to rest, a place to just be. Accepted and loved just as you are without a husband or kids or accolades or accomplishments. Just you.

Even if you don’t have a physical home like this to return to, you have a spiritual home with a Father who is longing to spend time with you, no matter what season you are in. You don’t have to be something you are not; you don’t have to pretend. You just need to be with Him. Because He loves you as His own, He simply longs for you to rest with Him. Sometimes going home is simply lifting your eyes to the sky and believing that he sees you and knows you and loves you no matter where your feet have taken you. He longs to be your home – your safe place, your place of freedom, your perfect place to belong.

You don’t have to take a road trip or book a flight to go home. It may not look or feel like the home you grew up in, but he is your home. Find a way to spend some time with your heavenly Father and come home.