Tag Archives: Warm

“I Will Bring You Home”

March 11, 2016 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“At that time I will bring you home….”
Zephaniah 3:20 (NRSV)

Here in the heartland of America, in the great state of Iowa, we have been experiencing an early spring. It’s March Madness, which is usually a time when we receive the final blast of winter’s fury. The state high school girl’s basketball tournament is mythically synonymous with “blizzard.” But not this year.

The temperatures have been unseasonably warm. The tulips are already shooting up from the earth. We’ve already used the grill on the patio multiple times. The sounds of Cubs baseball is becoming daily ambient audio here at Vander Well Manor, even if it is just spring training.

There is something exciting about spring. The death of winter gives way to new life in spring. We celebrate the journey from gave to empty tomb. Shivering in the cold yields to basking in the sun’s warmth. Resurrection, hope, and joy are kindled in our souls, reminding us that old things pass away and new things are coming.

How apt, I thought, that in this morning’s chapter we find Zephaniah’s predictions of doom and gloom giving way to hope and salvation. And, amidst the hopeful promises God gives through the ancient prophet is the simple phrase “I will bring you home.” That phrase has so much meaning for me in so many layers:

As I care for aging parents and grieve the “home” that I once knew.
As I watch our girls spread their wings and scatter to their respective paths and realize the “home” that I have so recently known and loved has suddenly gone the way of winter in an early spring.
As I come home from three long days working with clients to find Wendy waiting at the door for me with a cold beer, hot meatloaf, and a warm kiss; realizing in that moment the home that I am so blessed to experience each day, right now.
As I wax poetic in my annual giddiness for baseball season and ponder anew the game in which the goal is to arrive safely home.

“I will bring you home,” God says through Zephaniah.

[sigh]

featured image from joewcampbell via Flickr

Wayfarer's Journal

Heading South and Out to Sea

February 13, 2014 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

Westerdam docked at Grand Turk — (Photo credit: Phil Comeau)

We have been slogging our way through one of the coldest, most brutal winters I can remember. Around where we live, the casual conversation revolves ceaselessly around the weather and how sick everyone is of snow, ice an sub-zero temperatures.

Because Wendy and I have invested so much in our place on the lake, going there has eaten up 98 percent of our vacation time for the past several years. We love it there, but because we both work from home (be that home in Iowa or home at the lake), we are almost never unplugged for any length of time even when we’re hanging out at the lake. For our anniversary this year, Wendy and I decided to treat ourselves to a week away from cold, snow, work and the grind. It’s our first true “getaway” vacation since our trip to London in 2009.

Tomorrow morning these wayfarers will be up before the butt-crack of dawn, leaving our computers behind, and heading south and out to sea. We will be unplugged and pretty much unreachable for seven days. Needless to say, there will be no posts for ten days.

Carry on. See you when we return! 😉

Tom's Photos

Warm Thoughts

December 19, 2013 Tom Vander Well 3 Comments

I have been in meetings in Minnesota the past two days. A cold blast of north wind overnight brought temps into the single digits. Refreezing ice on the roads is making the morning commute dangerous. There is forecast of snow and freezing rain for my trip home. Yuck.

I miss the lake in July. This photo, which I took of Wendy on a sunset boat ride back from Bulldog’s Beach House last summer, gave me warm thoughts this morning. Thought I’d share. 🙂

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Hebrews 13

March 15, 2012 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it! Hebrews 13:2 (NLT)

While I was in college I took a semester off from school to stay home, work and make a little money. One Sunday I attended a small church in the inner city. I was one of the only white people in the area, let a lone the church. I felt like a grain of salt in a pepper shaker. Yet, as I entered the church I felt a warmth and a love surrounding me.

A woman in the pew behind me leaned up, placed her hand on my shoulder and welcomed me and told me she was so glad I was there. When the congregation stood to pray, another elderly woman who was sitting down the pew from me walked over and took my hand in hers as we prayed. I was hugged and welcomed and loved.

I left church that morning humbled. I knew that if any of those sweet brothers and sisters in Christ had come to my home church that morning, they would not have received anything close to the warm, loving welcome I had received from them.

My eyes were opened that morning and I found myself repenting of my own sinful prejudices, stereotypes, and ignorance. Most of all, I repented for having such a meager and misery heart that always loved those of my choosing on my terms of comfort and propriety.

Some experiences become an important waypoint in our journey; a demarkation point when our path makes a distinct change in course. Since that morning, I have forever paid more attention to strangers walking into my midst and sought to show love the way it was shown to me in a small inner city church many years ago.