even the sparrow: home and her dad's hug

200+ facebook "likes."
that's a lot for me. an awful lot for one picture. okay, two -- i collaged (morphed) two pictures into one. more bang for my buck. or maybe just an indecisive post-er.
whatever. 200+ likes made me wonder.

why?

what facebook logarithm clicked?
what exactly was it about this picture which made people push that elusive "like" button?

the element of surprise?
the event of a birthday?
the enthusiasm of a college girl?

or maybe it's just the plain encouragement we all get from one who returns home.

she's only been one state over.
and it's only been for two full weeks.

but something about emily coming home and surprising her dad out on the deck for his 46th birthday felt ... precious. the rest of us kind of knew no matter what we wrapped up in our boxes or wrote in our cards --- she had trumped us all with the gift of her return.

and that was okay.

all of us. perfectly okay with this particular trumping.

because we were all just as excited about seeing our sister-daughter back where she belonged. home in time for dinner. a birthday dinner which i, by the way, happened to ruin. (adding sherry vinegar to homemade chicken marsala is not the same thing as adding plain, old sherry -- sigh). rick's favorite dish a disaster. i've been making this for years -- could make it in my sleep -- except i guess i was a wee bit distracted watching out the window for her car.

but even the ruined birthday feast was wonderful with oldest girl back at the table.

sometimes that's all it takes.

everyone home.

and i kept thinking ... all this rejoicing. it's so much fun. so much fun to watch the middle girl come barreling through the door and hop up into her big sister's arms. so much fun to hear emily say to her 11 year old brother, "connor, give me a real hug." so much fun to hear her talk and tell us about all those things she hasn't had time to fit into phone conversations or text messages.

so much fun to just see her. sitting there. her. here. home.

even after only two weeks.

and that hug between emily and her dad. out on the deck. crazy cute, right? especially the monogrammed hat. but really --- that's what we are all "liking." isn't it? the little girl back in the big arms of her dad. that's what we all want out of life. to be welcomed home. to be held.

to be rejoiced over.

surprise or birthday or college or whatever. it's about how it feels to be back where we belong; to be home.

and if we felt like this on a friday night in september, just think of God's rejoicing when He welcomes home each of His children. think of that embrace. think of that enthusiasm. think of the hold in that kind of hug.

a girl home for her dad's birthday -- a glimpse of God's embrace when we return home.

and, one picture or two, that's a lot to "like."