"Home" by Catalina Mullis

As the year comes to an end, I, like many others, begin to reflect on the past year of my life, the things I experienced, and the things that I would like to experience in the upcoming year. 

My year, like most of my life really, has been filled with extensive travel. I spent January-June studying abroad in Salvador, Brazil. In June, I returned to my home in Los Angeles. In August I left to go back to Philadelphia for school. And now, I find myself once again in Los Angeles. Like a nomad, I've never really stayed in one place; I just keep moving and moving and moving. 

That's why, in the past, when people asked me where "home" is, I didn't really know how to respond because in many ways, I never felt like I had a "home," and just when I started feeling fully comfortable in one place, I'd have to leave again. 

It was discouraging, to say the least, and at times, it left me with an incredible sense of loneliness. 

So, when I arrived at the Christian Association as a freshman in 2013 and read that it was "a home away from home," I wondered if that could be true for me; Could this place really offer me something I never felt that I had?

While at Penn, I have left the Christian Association many times; for winter and summer breaks, for study abroad, and soon (sniffle), for life as I prepare to graduate. 

But I can honestly say that the CA has indeed offered me a "home," not really in a physical sense (don't get me wrong, the CA is one of the coziest places to be and I LOVE it), but more so in a spiritual sense; the CA has shown me that my "home" is always with me, that my "home" is my God, my Savior Jesus, the Lord I didn't know before Penn but whom I came to love throughout my time at Penn. 

So, when I find myself traveling the world without a physical place to call home, the CA has helped me see that all I have to do is be still, and know that Jesus isalways with me. 

He is my "home" forever and ever and ever. 

Hallelujah!!!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and may you be filled with joy, because the Lord has come! 

Amen.