Paris to Home
My wife and I were fortunate to be able to celebrate our 35th anniversary in Paris at the end of June. We marveled at all the sites – the Eiffel Tower, the Luxembourg Gardens, Sacre Couer and Montmartre, the Louvre and Notre Dame – but the history buff in me kept intruding into my thoughts.
As we toured Palais Versailles with its gaudy gold adornments, I wondered how many people had starved to death as the Louis’s (XIV, XV and XVI) entertained their entourage of hundreds or thousands in their over-the-top opulence.
We walked around and under the Arc de Triomphe where their unknown soldier is buried and then down the beautiful Champs Elysees with its glistening 3 and 4-story buildings devoted (individually) to the likes of Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, Channel, etc. My wife was taking pictures like mad, but I was trying to imagine how stomach-churning it must have been to watch German troupes march up that street 77 years ago, or how absolutely ecstatic people must have been several years later to watch the Allied troupes march up the same street. My dad didn’t get to be in that parade. He was following Patton toward Berlin.
One disappointment was that we didn’t get to go to the cemeteries at Normandy. It’s about a 12 or 13-hour “day trip” from Paris with not much time to really look around, so we left it on the bucket list and will go back to pay homage and our due respects another time.
It was great to be away, but one of the best points of the trip was when we walked down a long hallway in Detroit’s airport and heard the friendly voice of a Customs official saying “Welcome home!”
Home – what a wonderful word; what a powerful message. It instantly recalls images, sounds, scents and feelings. The thought calms us, grounds and revitalizes us. It nourishes us and, like a welcome rain, revitalizes and strengthens our roots. It’s peace.
I’m reminded that Jesus often told people to go home. After curing the paralytic, Jesus told him to “Get up, take your mat and go home.” (Matthew 9:6) In Luke 8:39, the man from whom the demons had gone out wanted to follow Jesus, but he instructed him “Go home and tell how much God has done for you.”
I think all of us need to get “home” from time to time – wherever that is. We need to allow the environment to absorb us and ground us, to remind us who we are and why we’re here. I hope that during the summer you’ll all make some time to go home. May it nourish and restore you.
