Homecoming

It’s Homecoming Season for most of the local High Schools and Colleges.  Depending on your school experience, or the experiences of your kids this may or may not be a big deal to you.  In our small town, it’s a pretty big event that spreads out over two days. 

Friday night bonfires, Volleyball games, BBQs and games, followed by Saturday’s Parade, Football games and culminating in the homecoming dance.

Our small town experience is very different than my experiences growing up in a large suburban school.  Homecoming was a dance if you were into dances, it was game if you were into football, it came and went, only those directly interested participated.  But here in small town Colorado, I know I will see people of all different ages and interests show up to these events.  Kids that don’t play sports will decorate floats and cheer on games, kids that don’t dance or don’t want a date will hang out with their friends anyway, the volleyball girls will cheer just as loudly as the cheerleaders at the football game, and the football players will probably dress up in some sort of theme and cheer louder for the Volleyball games than anyone else in attendance.

The parade route will run through town and be lined with infants, toddlers, elementary school kids, parents and grandparents; the parade floats will be filled with Middle School & High School students, Band members, Sports teams, and Cub Scouts.  There will probably be a few horses, definitely several tractors and a few of the coolest cars that are stored in barns and rarely come out to play.

It will be a weekend of Community.  And at it’s very core, it will remind our hearts that this is what we are created for.

We are created to gather together, to encourage each other, to accomplish things together, to battle together, to win or lose together,  to cheer each other on.  To share a meal, and dance and laugh, to tell stories around a bonfire.

And because we are blessed to be in small town America, there will still be a prayer offered before the game, we will stand together and sing the national anthem and the noise of dissention and politics will quiet for a while.

This may not be your community’s Homecoming experience, it wasn’t mine.  For most of my life,  I found my weekly homecoming in showing up to Church on Sundays or small groups during the week.  There, people celebrated me, battled with me, cheered me on, stood with me, prayed with me, and set differences aside.

I’ve talked a lot about the value of our circles recently, I guess at the end of the post, that’s what this one is all about too.  Regardless of what season of life you are in, or how connected your city is, I invite you to celebrate your own homecoming this week.

Connect with your community, celebrate, cheer, and encourage… maybe even do it around a bonfire!