by Aaron Little
There’s no place like home.” These are the iconic words uttered by Judy Garland’s character, Dorothy, as she clicked the heels of her ruby red slippers together in the 1939 production of The Wizard of Oz. It was the same year that World War II broke out in Europe, a war that forced the founders of the Bruderhof community to make some hard decisions in moving from Germany to England to Paraguay. For them, like so many others in that difficult era, the definition of “home” was severed from a link to any geographic location. Instead, “home” became a description for the presence of mutual commitments to God and to one another. Their home became their people.
Perhaps like me, you felt strangely at “home” at the most recent NCN gathering in Kentucky. Paradoxically, I recognized a familiarity in people whom I’d never met, and everyone seemed to be speaking my mother tongue (the language of community, of course!). I found myself lingering at meal tables with people who cut through the dross with their natural freedom to know and be known—and gathering around bonfires until I could barely hold my eyes open to dissect more than just football and the weather. It felt almost like pulling into the family driveway for a Christmas holiday. And I know I’m far from being the only one with that sentiment. I think we were all lifted just a little nearer to our ultimate Home in Heaven where representatives from Jubilee Partners, Englewood Christian Church, Casa de Esperanza, Madonna House, Caneyville and more will be singing the praises of our God together in perfect unity forever.
And while we all no doubt long for the throne room of Heaven where every tribe will be gathered together in worship, there are very few places on earth where one can go where so many diverse peoples are swimming in the same unified sea of community. For my wife, Vio, who grew up in that sea of community in her village in Eastern Europe, the NCN gathering was a welcome reprieve. She could let her hair down amongst a people in which—for the most part—the understanding and experience of community could be assumed.
However, as we are all painfully aware, the path toward community is not a well-trodden one. Yet I had conversation after conversation with people who have a heart for welcoming and assisting others down that unkempt and culturally uncouth path. These new friends are now a living testimony to me that the nature of community has both an inward and an outward expression. Now, as we have circled back to many of the relationships that were formed at the NCN gathering, I am recognizing that there always seems to be an extra chair at their tables—because friendships, relationships, and community are never formed but always forming. Yet even with our definition of “home” always changing as people move in and out of our lives and our communities, I think Dorothy was right. There’s simply no place like it.
Aaron Little and his wife Vio are entrepreneurs who have a passion for gathering people to the intersection of healing, community, and discipleship. They are calling a new community together in Chattanooga.