This Is Home
© 2019 Bret Hesla.
Here we’re invited. Come right on in.
Here we were always part of the plan.
Seeking a thousand, we’ve stumbled on ten!
Refrain:
This is home. Let us give thanks
For all of these mercy-filled glories of God.
This is home. Let us give thanks.
The home we have longed for has found us.
Here we are noticed. Here we can’t hide.
Here we are greeted. Looked in the eye.
Here our name’s spoken numberless times.
This is home ….
Here we can say it: Set down our load.
Break through the silence Crippling our soul.
Share without judgment our wounds from the road.
This is home ….
Here there are duties for each of us planned.
Here we must show up: the time is at hand.
Here we’re expected to give what we can.
This is home ….
We have a vision we’re eager to tell.
Wide is the table, deep is the well.
In-crowd dismantled, we circle with all.
This is home ….
[for other verses, see Leadsheet]
Words and music by Bret Hesla.
Written on commission for Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
© 2019 Bret Hesla. All rights reserved. Use with permission, please.
Licensed via OneLicense.net, Contact: Bret.hesla@gmail.com.
Recording:
Piano: Tom Witt
Guitar: Bret Hesla
Percussion: Richard Bruxvoort Colligan
Vocals: Bret Hesla, Martha Schwen-Bardwell, Ray Makeever, Linda Breitag
Notes: This Is Home.
This song is part of a commission series, Love’s Wide Embrace, written for a Lutheran congregation in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Before doing any songwriting, I did a lot of listening and asking questions. “What’s one story you’d like to share that captures something about this congregation and your connection to it?” “What does it feel like to be a part of this church?” “Why are you here?” “Why are we here?”
This song is a collection of some of the responses of people in the congregation. Lots of the answers and observations were about being in community, about being deeply welcomed, but also about being accountable to one another in community. Words like “embraced” and “accepted” and “challenged” kept popping up. Also the word “home”.