Day 20 – Returning Home

And now for some final words as we sit on a 747 heading home -

Travel, we feel, provides an excellent education on the world. No longer are certain places simply pictures in a book or places on a map. Now they include smells, sights, tastes, and feelings -both physical and emotional. Most significantly, travel is meeting people - people who wouldn’t trade their citizenship any more than we would ours. That’s a positive thing. We saw beautiful families really enjoying one another, and around numerous tables, the conversation always included our homes and various communities.

While Europe has an abundance of magnificent churches and cathedrals, it seems that they are becoming museums. As always, and perhaps now more than ever, people need the Lord.

We saw beautiful things and countrysides so lovely that at times I forgot to blink. Would I like to live in any of the places we saw? No, but thank you just the same. If we did, things would be so different. And you know what – we love our lives. Coming home to loving and supportive parents, to our dear children, a great son-in-law, and our little Gus, loving family and amazing friends – well, we wouldn’t trade them for anything or everything in this world!

Our heavenly Father, in His gracious sovereignty, has designed all of our lives to fulfill His perfect plan and purpose for our lives. When that includes travel, it might be to meet someone for a particular reason, or simply to appreciate His daily blessings in your own backyard. Whatever the reason might be for this wonderful opportunity we’ve just enjoyed, we are thankful. Thankful to God, from whom flows every good and perfect gift, and to our children, who encouraged us to go, did all of the planning, and told us to have a ball. We did! But there is no greater joy in the world than coming home to the people you love. That’s where we are today. Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz said, “There’s no place like home,” as she returned to Kansas, we echo as we come home to what Holly wrote in her last entry in travel notes…Home to St. Louis – the best city on earth!