“Longing For Home”

Wow, this place stinks and I really don’t want to be here, in fact I need to get out of here”. I still remember my first night of Basic Training at Ft. Bliss in Texas, over 50 years ago. It came after a day with a lot of chaos…. a shaved head, new fatigues. Fortunately I calmed down and the feeling passed and I didn’t “go over the hill”. This was certainly not home.  

I’m sure we’ve all found ourselves in places where we wanted to leave and get home. Maybe we were stranded in an airport, maybe experiencing loneliness in some distant city, or maybe worse. In those moments, we may exclaim, “boy I wish I was home…. I can’t wait to get home”. We long for home….. home, a place of safety and  comfort.  

As we live our life on this earth, there are times when we can have the same feeling…. boy, I feel like I’m away from home… I can’t wait to get home. Well it may be because our true home is in heaven. Jesus tells us: “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” (John 17:11, 14–15.)

We are not of this world. This is not our home. We try hard to make it feel like home, but it’s not. When we are busy with life we may not notice that we are out of place here. Yet, when we slow down due to age or illness or trials , we may come to realize that this world is not our home. Gee Dave, this is starting to sound a little depressing. Well to be honest, it’s not bad to feel a bit out of place so we don’t get our focus off the Lord and our heavenly home. We need to constantly live for the Lord and his ways, as we look forward to our heavenly home, our true home.

What we cherish about our earthly home can be a foretaste of our future heavenly home…. a place of safety, comfort, and love. When home we are surrounded by those who love us, we can enjoy great food and entertainment, we are accepted, we have nothing to fear… we are safe. Certainly not everyone experiences their earthly home in that way, but there is still a longing for this kind of home. When we walk thru the door of our home, we are welcomed… all are glad to see us….. “hey everyone, Dave’s home, dad’s home, mom’s home …..”

So when things get troubling and we feel we are far from home, know that our loving God will take care of us on this journey and that one day he will call us home.

As Jesus told us:  “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:1-4) And that is very good news.