I have returned! Well, my wife and I have returned. It was a long four weeks, and we are surely glad to be back. The whole trip was a return, in a way. I went back to Colorado Springs, where I met my lovely wife and spent the first five years of my marriage. I returned to see the first house I ever bought (the current owners are keeping it in great shape!) and the mountains I grew so used to seeing day after day after day.

I returned to the church I attended for years in Colorado Springs. I didn't forget anyone's names (phew!) and they were glad to see us, but it was kind of like "oh, yes, I remember you, nice to see you..." and not all that overwhelming. I also had a chance to pay a return visit to the church I attended in Golden, Colorado when I lived in Denver for eight years. They almost knocked us over with the "So GLAD to see you! When are you moving back here? We need you!!! We miss you!!!" way they had greeted us. The return there was one of the highlights of my trip. Some of the Christians who had fallen away years ago had made "returns" of their own, which overjoyed my heart!

My wife got to return to Kansas, in particular Junction City, which was close to where she grew up and was the location of her early grade school. Driving along I-70, we had a "drive by" return to Paxico, which was really where she grew up. We also had a "drive by" return to Brazil, Indiana, where some of our worst motel nightmares came true once upon a time.

We worked in a return to Lisbon, Ohio where the Days Inn is now Lisbon Inn but the pool is still not finished. I returned to the town I spent the first twenty years of my life living in and around with a more observant eye than I ever did back in those years. We attended the saddest church service I think I ever did, when we returned to spend Sunday morning worshiping in the church where I grew up. Seventeen people, counting us, and everyone but four people over 40. Only one child. What happens in a poverty-stricken town, where it seems every other house is up for sale and a mansion sells for what a single family starter home sells for here? When no one moves in, when everyone just gets older and older, and the kids that do grow up there move away? I'm glad my cousin scott returned to the town to preach, but I fear it just isn't enough to keep it from one day closing the doors for the last time. (If my wife could work things her way, it isn't Colorado you need fear me moving to, but those rolling hills, open farmland, and small towns are another matter...)

We also returned to the church in Alliance, Ohio, where my brother used to preach before he left the Lord and ran like a rat on his family. The brethren there were glad to see us, and greeted us warmly. Our return there left us feeling that my remaining faithful family in the area were well thought of and spiritually well cared for.

Finally, we returned here to Massachusetts. At work, everyone was very happy to see me, even those who usually aren't real thrilled about me, and I had to make many, many reassurances that I wasn't planning on taking a job back in Colorado, nor was I planning to take another long vacation for some time to come. My little dogs were happy to see us return, but obviously they were more happy to see Deniese than they were me. We returned in time for services this past Wednesday night, where I promptly called Mo Wally, and then called Skip Wally. Even so, it sure was good to be back. Many people were glad to see us, and told us so. Dave Dugas is probably particularly glad to see us home safely! What a guy he was to help me out by putting the bulletin together, getting it printed out, etc. I have a hunch his wife gave him a little help, too, and I prayed for both of them as well as for all of the rest of you.

There is one return I never want to make, however. I never plan on returning to God, at least not in this life. I never plan on leaving him! He was in the car with us when we drove out, when we visited, when we laughed, when we cried, and when we returned home. In a big way, my vacation was all about God. And He provided me with a lot of future bulletin fodder! I didn't leave Him at "home" as I wandered about. And since my home is really in heaven anyway, then even Massachusetts is just another place to visit on the way there. I can't "return" to a place I have never been. But until then, it sure is nice to visit her with you all once again. Very, very nice.

Genesis 31:2-3 And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and, behold, it was not toward him as before. and the Lord said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee.

Exodus 4:19 And the Lord said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt; for all the men are dead which sought thy life.

I Samuel 6:7-8 Now therefore make a new cart, and take two milch kine, on which there hath come no yoke, and tie the kine to the cart, and bring their calves home from them: And take the ark of the Lord, and lay it upon the cart: and put the jewels of gold, which ye return him for a trespass offering, in a coffer by the side thereof; and send it way, that it may go.

Nehemiah 2:4-5 Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldst send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulcres, that I may build it.

Matthew 2:11-12 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.

Matthew 24:18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.

Luke 10:17 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject unto us through thy name.