Home is an interesting concept. I lived in the same house for 13 years of my life, and the next house for 5 years, then it was off to college where I lived in a different hall (or at least floor of a hall) every year, moved back home for the first two years of seminary and then moved into seminary housing for a year before moving to Northern Michigan. I spent three years in middle school, four in high school, three in college and three in seminary. I have been in my first church assignment for almost three years. While I certainly haven't moved around nearly as much as other people, a sense of permanence isn't exactly my thing.
You don't need a sense of permanence to know the joy of being "home." Whether it's the peace of coming home after a vacation, or the terror of seeing your home vandalized or burglarized, the emotional power of home is stirring. And, I believe, is part of how we were created.
Consider Cain and Abel. When Cain murders Abel, his fate is to wander the earth, finding nowhere to call home. Some who wander are able to find home wherever they go- but Cain's curse was that he wouldn't find a home anywhere because he poisoned the earth with his brother's blood.
We are a homeward bound people. Jesus speaks of this home when He speaks of God. And the good news is that this home is on the way. Revelation speaks clearly about the new city coming down onto a renewed earth to inaugurate the eternal kingdom. Leonard Sweet recently posted on facebook this quote "Remember that before Jesus is our way to God, that Jesus is God's way to us." Or something like that.
When Jesus talks about being the Way, the Truth and the Life, I think more and more that Jesus isn't offering us the path home. I think that when Jesus came to us, we are now at home.
Allow me to explain by a story. I moved to Glen Arbor, MI on June 1, 2009. Heather's job did not allow her to move up until June 5, 2009. And so on June 1, 2009, I lived in our house alone. I had no friends (although I made some that week in quick measure), no family, only my work and the still-brand-new relationships with Glen Lake Church. Needless to say, it was hard to feel like I was home. With Heather over a hundred miles away, it hardly felt like home at all. Here I was, ready to start this new adventure, excited about the possibilities of pastoral ministry with people and in an area I love, but yet I felt alone. It wasn't home until June 5, 2009, when Heather arrived. When she arrived, our house became home, and it seemed right.
Jesus has come. It's more like home, now.
Jesus will come again. It'll be a perfect home.
Come, Lord Jesus.
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