Where is "Home"?This is a question that has been buzzing around in my mind recently. I believe we all have a longing for "home" in us, sometimes when we are even at the place that we have called home for years. Why is this?
I recently read a book
The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller. The book is about the parable of the lost son. "In Jesus's parable the younger brother goes off into a distant country expecting a better life but is disappointed. He begins to long for home, remembering the food in his father's house. So do we all. "Home" exerices a powerful influence over human life. Many of us have fond memories of times, people, and places, where we felt we were truly home. However, if we ever have opportunity to get back to the places we remember so fondly, we are usually disappointed. Home, then is a powerful but elusive concept. The strong feelings that surround it reveal some deep longing within us for a place that absolutely fits and suits us, where we can be, or perphaps find, our true selves."
A couple of weeks ago I went on a trip with the 10th graders for Service Emphasis week. We were gone for about 6 days and although I greatly enjoyed serving with them and getting to know each one of them better, by the end I was tired and ready to go "home". I think it may have been the first time in my mind that I really felt like I was going "home" since living here in Tanzania. I must admit it was mostly for the comforts that I experience at my house here in Tanzania; an air conditioner in my room (that works when there is electricity), a warm shower (again when there is electricity), and a quiet bedroom so that I could sleep. I was excited though to really truly have the feeling that I was going "home".
It is amazing how things can so quickly change in our minds though. After being "home" for a day, I had vistor's come from "home". Wait a minute ! Is this home, is that home, or is it neither? When I lived in Honduras we use to say "home" and "home, home" to distinguish between the place we were living and the place we just came from. I must admit as I have been thinking about this the past few days it has thrown my mind into a bit of a spin. It has especially been interesting for me to prcoss through as I think about the place I just came from. How often is a "home" a house you lived in? Well lets see the house I lived in, in Allentown, can no longer really be "home" because Kristin and Hugo are now married and living there. Oh yeah! and the house I grew up in can no longer be "home" because my parents moved this past summer. I think I may have slept in the new house a total of three nights. Does that mean I am "homeless" when I go "home" this summer? Am I really going "home"?
I think Timothy Keller explains my feelings well in his book. "There seems to be a sense, then, in which we are all like the younger brother. We are all exiles, always longing for home. We are always traveling never arriving. The houses and families we actually inhabit are only inns along the way, but they aren't home. Home continues to evade us. In the beginning of the book of Genesis we learn the reason why all people feel like exiles, like we aren't really home. We are told there that we were created to live in the garden of God. That was the world we were built for, a place in which there was no parting from love, no decay, no disease. It was all these things because it was life before the face of God, in his preence. There we were to adore and serve his infinite majesty, and to know, enjoy, and reflect his infinite beauty. That was our orignal home, the true country we were made for. "
I know on this side of earth I will always have a longing for "home", because I will not really be "home" until that day when I am called to my true HOME. I am so thankful that I have a Savior that died for all of my sins, and rose again so that one day I will be able to live with Him forever and there will be no more death, pain, crying, or grief.
Revelation 21:1-4
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth disappeared, and the sea vanished. And I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared and ready, like a bride dressed to meet her husband. I heard a loud voice speaking from the throne: "Now God's home is with human beings! He will live with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them, and he will be their God. He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. There will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain. THe old things have disappeared."
