Not Far from Home

By emily n. estes

There’s a path home my memory has rooted to it’s core. No matter which direction I travel, I can discern whether home is North, East, South, or West of where I stand. I know when I’m far away and I know when I am not far from home. There is something that stirs in me when, after all these years away from the place I remember as my life’s beginning, I am not far from home.

home | hōm | noun

1. the dwelling place.

Just as there are mile markers and landmarks for our earthly perspective of home, God creates the same for the home we are journeying towards – our ultimate dwelling place. The Equip Her ministry is one of the mile markers God brought into my life to help me know I am not far from home. This ministry and the relationships that have developed and grown because of it has grounded me in many ways:

• He has introduced His disciples, those we find in the Bible and women who He has chosen to share His voice and hope and truth through
• He has created community and fellowship among women that has shown how He loves and cares through the hands and feet of others
• He has offered opportunity to share stories with one another and help us know that we are not alone – that so many others often relate to the joys and sorrows we experience in life
• He has brought emotion to the surface that has hidden behind layers of masks – He has brought me back to LIFE through laughter and tears that were just waiting to be expressed
• He has removed shackles that I never dreamed of letting go by reminding me that He can see me – just as I was, just as I am, and just as I will be
• He has given me a key to knowing Him more fully – a key that will only open to the relationship He and I can share in
• He has danced with me . . . and that is a story in and of itself for another day.

God is home. He stirs in me words of His truth – always reminding me that I am not far from home.

God invites us to come out of hiding to be fully seen, fully known. If He feels distant to you, I invite you to listen to Out of Hiding by Steffany Gretzinger. Be encouraged that you can never stray too far from home.

Out of Hiding